A Twist of Fate
by Lady Sabine of Macayhill
Summary: The Dursleys don't want Harry, so they leave him at an orphanage, without a note. The director gives him the name James Evan Lydell and he grows up there, with his best friend and adopted older siblings, twins, and so Fate changes. Please r&r!
1. Chapter 1

Summary: I was talking with my best friend and she wondered what it would have been like if Harry had grown up in an orphanage. Or if he'd been abandoned at the age of five or six. Since my friend isn't that good at writing, she said I could take either of the ideas and write a fic on it. Both ideas intrigued me, and so here is my second HP fic. The Dursleys don't want to have a 'freak' in their home, so Vernon leaves Harry at an orphanage, without bothering to leave a note. Things go on from there.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, the fantastic author J.K. Rowling does. I'm just playing around with her world like the many other fanfic writers out there.

Mrs. Draper, director of Sunnybrook Orphanage, opened the door to take in the day's milk delivery. She couldn't help letting out a small shriek when she saw the bundled baby on the step, next to the bottles and jugs of milk. "What in the world?" she asked. Babies left on the orphanage's doorstep weren't that common an occurence, the last one having been four years ago. That baby had been left without a note, so she had given the baby the name of Janet Sarah Smith and the birthday of April 15th.

Mrs. Draper picked up the baby on the step, who had woken up and started crying. "Hush, little one," she said gently, noting that the child had lovely emerald green eyes, a curious lightning-shaped scar on his forehead, and black hair that showed signs of being messy, even though there wasn't a great deal of it. She glanced back at the step and then looked through the blankets wrapping up the toddler, but there was so sign of any note. It looked as if she would have to come up with a name for him and determine a birthdate.

The cook, Mrs. Kent, took the milk in, and asked about the baby. Mrs. Draper explained and then went to the nursery where all the babies and toddlers were kept. Miss Jones, who was in charge of looking after them, changed the new addition's nappy and fed him. Mrs. Draper regarded the child, who looked to be a couple of months past the age of one. That meant his birthday would have to be sometime in the summer, July or August. Finally she decided on July 25th for the birthday and went to her office to fill out a birth certificate.

After entering in July 25th, 1980 in the line for date of birth, she pondered over what name to give the boy. Finally she decided on James for the first name, since he looked like a James to her. After some further thought, she decided on Evan for middle name. However, she couldn't decide on a last name. She supposed she could use Smith, but she had given Janet that last name, and she didn't want to have to use a rather common last name. Finally she went to ask Miss Jones for a suggestion.

Several of the older children were in the nursery, meeting the new addition to the orphanage. Stuart Lydell, who had turned five a month ago and had been at the orphanage since June, turned to Mrs. Draper and asked, "What's his name, Mrs. Draper?"

"James Evan," responded Mrs. Draper. "But I don't know what his last name is going to be. He was left without a name and I'm making one up for him."

"He can have ours," said Stella, who was Stuart's twin sister. "James can be our little brother."

"All right," said Mrs. Draper, smiling. "His last name will be Lydell. James Evan Lydell." She went back to her office to finish filling out the birth certificate.

From that day, the toddler that had appeared at the orphanage was known as James Lydell. In the first few weeks, he kept crying for his parents and two other people he referred to as "Unca Pafoo" and "Unca Mooey". While "unca" was plainly baby-talk for "Uncle", nobody had any idea who 'Pafoo' or 'Mooey' were, or what names they were baby-talk for. It was quite obvious that James had been loved by his parents and uncles, though why he'd ended up abandoned at the orphanage was a mystery. The only explanation was thought up by Mrs. Kent, that maybe James's parents had died, his uncles had been unable to take him in, and so somebody had just left him with the orphanage.

Stella and Stuart were quite happy to claim James as their unoffical brother, and Stella, in fact, liked to act like a mother to him. When James was four and accidentally scraped a knee, it was Stella that he ran to. She hugged him, washed the scrape, took him to Mr. Kent, the cook's husband, who gave him a bandage, and then kissed James so that he felt better. Stuart was protective in a different way, making sure nobody ever teased or bullied James, and told the younger boy fascinating stories about evil wizards and brave knights that fought them.

When James was five, he made a best friend with another boy at the orphanage, named Kyle Melling. The two got into trouble with the pranks they played, but usually managed to avoid punishment by the puppy-dog eyes James made with his lovely green eyes and the sincerely apologetic look Kyle made.

A year later, there was a new child at the orphanage, a girl of six that was of Japanese descent. Her name was Mariko Kishi, Mari for short, and she cried constantly for her parents. James and Kyle befriended her, and after a few months, she got over her grief to join them in their pranks. She avoided punishment by crying for her parents when she got caught.

The trio broke up a few months after Kyle's seventh birthday, when he got adopted. Kyle wanted his adoptive parents to adopt James and Mari as well, but the Carters explained that they could only take in one child, and James didn't want to leave Stella and Stuart any more than he wanted to be separated from his friend.

James couldn't help crying off and on for a week after Kyle had left, even though both had promised to write and the Carters had said James and Mari could visit Kyle for two weeks every summer. He turned to Stella for comfort, who did her best to make him feel better.

James turned eight and another incident occurred that made his world change. A stern-looking lady appeared at the orphanage and explained that Stuart and Stella, who were now two months away from turning twelve, were going to a school called Hogwarts, for people with very special and wonderful abilities. When James and Mari had appeared unhappy that the twins were leaving ten months out of the year, the lady had cheered them up by saying that if they studied hard, they could perhaps go to Hogwarts also when they were older.

Stella took James and Mari aside after the lady had left and explained to them about the wizarding world and how Hogwarts was a school of magic. She swore them to secrecy about this, and added that since both of them had done strange things before that could only be magic, the lady was right when she had said they could attend Hogwarts too.

The lady came back two days later to take the twins to get their school things. A fund had been set up by Hogwarts for students that couldn't pay for their supplies, so there was no worry as to how they could buy them. Everything was second-hand, except for the wand, writing materials, potions supplies, and cauldron. Because of this, Stella, who liked to read, had some money left over, which she used to buy a few extra books for background reading (all second-hand). Stuart used his extra money to buy an owl, so he and Stella could write to James and Mari and not have to use a school owl. Mrs. Draper was surprised with the owl, but since there was no rule forbidding pets at the orphanage, she allowed it.

* * *

(Stella's POV)

Stella chatted with the two other first-year girls she'd just met and flipped through her battered copy of _Modern Magical History_, which she was in the process of reading, having finally finished with all her school books, _Hogwarts, a History_, and _Quidditch Through the Ages_. The girls, whom she thought would likely become her friends, had mentioned an evil wizard that everyone called You-Know-Who, since people were too scared to say his real name, and how he'd been defeated seven years ago by a one-year old baby. As _Modern Magical History_ had a chapter devoted to it, Stella was reading that chapter to get some more details on it.

She froze when she read the description of Harry Potter. The paragraph said that he had black hair and green eyes, and due to the confrontation with Voldemort, also had a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. That fit James's description exactly. It went on to say that the incident had happened on Halloween night and that Harry Potter was supposedly left with his Muggle relatives the night after the attack, but it couldn't be confirmed.

Stella put two and two together. James had appeared at the orphanage on November third, two days after the attack. If he had been left at his relatives the way he'd been left at the orphanage, then he wouldn't have been found until the morning of the second. If his relatives didn't want him, they could have easily dropped him off at the orphanage steps that night, where Mrs. Draper wouldn't find him until the next morning, on the third. Also, his description fit Harry Potter's, and there was the fact that he had shown signs of being magical. It was rather obvious to her that James Evan Lydell was really Harry James Potter. The coincidence with the name struck Stella then. Mrs. Draper unknowingly had picked James's real middle name for a first name, and his new middle name was similar to his mother's maiden name of Evans.

Stella put the book away and decided not to say anything about it, except maybe to Stuart. As for James, she would tell him what she found out when the summer holidays were over, and he could decide if he wanted to remain James Lydell or become Harry Potter. Since he wasn't one to seek attention, despite the fact he played pranks (he really only played them for fun and not so people could notice him), it was likely he wouldn't reveal himself as the Boy-Who-Lived. However, there was the problem of his looks. Any witch or wizard who saw that scar would know right away who he was. But perhaps it could be hidden with magic. She wondered if there was some way that you could change your appearance, since she recalled that no matter how many haircuts James got, his hair stayed the same, and there was the time when she thought his eyes had gone from green to brown. Stella made a note to look it up in the Hogwarts library and resumed her conversation with her new friends.

That evening, Stella was sorted into Ravenclaw, which wasn't a surprise to her, considering her love of reading and the fact that she considered clever by most people. Stuart took longer, and it appeared that he was arguing with the Sorting Hat. Finally it declared him a Ravenclaw as well. He took a seat next to his twin and said, "The Hat wanted me to be in Gryffindor, but I didn't want to be in a different house from you, so there was a small argument before it gave in and put me in Ravenclaw."

The next day, Stuart mentioned Harry Potter and You-Know-Who, which his dormmates had told him about. Stella dragged him aside, took out _Modern Magical History_, flipped to the chapter on You-Know-Who's defeat, and thrust the book at her twin. "Read this, Stuart."

"What?" demanded Stuart, looking puzzled. "Why?"

"Just do it," answered Stella, pointing to the paragraph on Harry's description. He read it through twice to make sure he hadn't missed anything and then his eyes widened as he put two and two together and realized what it meant. He looked up from the book to stare at his sister.

"That means our younger 'brother' is really Harry Potter!" he exclaimed.

"Lower your voice!" hissed Stella, looking around to make sure nobody had overheard. "Yes, James is really Harry Potter. I found out yesterday when I was reading the chapter."

Stuart frowned. "Well, what do we do? Nobody else has any idea that Harry Potter's at an orphanage and goes by the name of James Lydell."

"We do nothing, Stuart," replied Stella. "It's not for us to decide as to whether James reveals himself or not."

Stuart nodded in agreement. "I guess it would be up to James to decide. We'll tell him everything when we go back to the orphanage for the summer. He'll probably decide not to reveal himself, so we'll have to figure out a way to hide his appearance and stuff."

"I've already thought of that," said Stella. "I'm going to the library now, in fact, to look up any magical ways of hiding people's appearances that we can do."

"I'll join you, Stella," said Stuart. The two then asked an older Ravenclaw for directions to the library and they set out.


	2. Chapter 2

James and Mari looked wide-eyed as Stella and Stuart explained what they discovered about James's heritage. "I'm really Harry Potter?" whispered James. "And I'm famous?"

"Yes, James," said Stella gently. She handed him _Modern Magical History_ so he could confirm what she'd just told him.

When he was done with the chapter, tears welled up in his eyes. "So my parents did want me after all. And they sacky-sacrified themselves in order to save me."

Stuart pulled James into a hug. "It's 'sacrificed'. From what we've gathered, it was your relatives that didn't want you. We can't be sure, since it was never confirmed if you'd been left with them or not. Well, if they didn't want you, then it's a good thing you got sent here, since if they had kept you, they'd have probably made your life miserable."

James managed a smile. "Yeah, since I would have never had you and Stella to be my big brother and sister or have Mari as my friend."

Mari frowned. "By miserable, do you mean that James's relatives would have treated him like how Miss Minchin treated Sara Crew after her father died and supposedly left her penniless?"

Stella looked startled. "Oh, did you just read _A Little Princess_?" Mari nodded and Stella continued, "I guess so. Though I don't know if James's relatives have an attic in their home. But I guess they would have given him chores to do and not been nice to him if he'd stayed with them."

"Well, the orphanage's much better," declared James. "Mrs. Draper's nice, and so's everybody else that works here. And I've got a best friend and a pretend brother and sister."

The other three smiled and then Stuart said, "Well, it's up to you to decide if you want to continue to be James Lydell or reveal yourself to be Harry Potter."

James frowned, thinking deeply. "I'm famous, right? In the wizarding world, anyway. So people will treat me like I'm special and everything."

Stella nodded. "Everyone in the wizarding world knows your story, and other than the ones that supported You-Know-Who, they love you." She wasn't afraid to say 'Voldemort', but since the rest of the wizarding world, besides Dumbledore, was afraid of the name, she'd gotten in the habit of saying 'You-Know-Who' like they did.

"I don't mind being treated special sometimes, like on my birthday or Christmas," said James. "But being treated like all the time wouldn't be fun. 'Specially since it's 'cause I did something I don't even really remember, and it ended with my parents being killed. I want people to be nice to me 'cause they like me, not 'cause I'm famous."

"So I guess you don't want to reveal yourself and just want to be James Lydell?" asked Stuart, exchanging smiles with Stella. They'd figured that would be his answer.

James nodded, while Mari frowned. "How is James going to be hidden once we get to Hogwarts?" she demanded. "You said that everyone knows about his scar. Once they see it, everyone will know that he's Harry Potter and it doesn't matter what he says. They might still call him James 'cause he's so used to it, but they'll still treat him special."

"It's taken care of," said Stuart. "I read up on Metamorphmagi. They're people with the ability to change their appearance at will, without having to use potions or Glamour Charms. Stella and I think that James might have this ability, since there was the time his eyes went from green to brown for a few seconds. Plus all the times that his hair turned back to its usual state no matter how many haircuts he got. James, can you see if you can turn your hair red like mine? And turn it dark brown like Mari's?"

James nodded and concentrated for several seconds. The others gasped and Mari handed him a mirror. He saw that he had managed to turn his hair red and his eyes brown. "Cool!" he exclaimed. "I'm an Metamorphmagi!"

"It's _Metamorphmagus_," corrected Stella. "The other word is the plural. Let's make sure you really are one. Turn your hair blond, and see if you can hide your scar."

James concentrated once more. His hair was now blond and his scar disappeared from his forehead. He glanced down at his hand and saw the scar. "I can't make the scar go away, but I can move it to a different part of my body."

"That's all right," said Mari, looking through the chapter on You-Know-Who's defeat. "I don't think it can be completly gotten rid of, if this Voldemort person gave you it. You can just move the scar to your chest or leg or someplace else on your body where someone can't see it. When you go to Hogwarts, you can change your hair red so that you'll really look like Stella and Stuart's brother. And change the shape of your eyes to look like theirs. You don't need to change the color, since they've got green eyes."

"Okay, James, you'd better turn back to your normal appearance, or you'll freak everyone else out if they see you with blond hair and brown eyes," said Stuart.

James concentrated again and he turned back to his normal appearance, with his lightning-shaped scar back on his forehead. "Can I tell Kyle when me and Mari go visit him? Or should I keep it a secret from him?"

"I don't know," said Stella. "You are friends with him, and he could keep it a secret. But I don't know about Muggles knowing about magic."

"But what if he isn't a Muggle?" asked Mari. "What if he's magical like us?"

Stuart frowned. "Maybe you should keep it a secret for now. If he turns out to be wizard and gets an invitation to Hogwarts when he's eleven, then you can tell him, James."

"Okay," said James. "He might not believe if I told him about magic and say that I was making things up. If you've got nothing more to tell us, then can me and Mari go play now?"

The twins smiled and nodded. James and Mari grinned and then ran out the room to resume the game they'd been playing before the twins had taken them aside.

Author's Note: Should I have Kyle Melling turn out to be a wizard and join James at Hogwarts? Their friendship would be strengthened if that happened, but on the other hand, it would be a little too much if both of James's friends turned out to be magical. Please leave your answer in a review or PM. If most people want Kyle to turn out to be a wizard, I'll make it happen.


	3. Chapter 3

(Kyle's point of view)

Kyle sat on the couch, waiting for his best friends James and Mari to come for their yearly visit. He really wished he still lived with him, for they understood him the best. They never teased him the way some of the kids at school did. Kyle sighed, a frown on his face. It wasn't his fault his parents had to die in that car accident just after he'd turned five, leaving him an orphan. Blame it on the stupid drunk driver and the slippery roads, though he didn't know about the drunk driver until he was older. As for the idiot kids that said his parents didn't want him, well they were mistaken. Kyle knew perfectly well that his parents had loved and wanted him. In fact, the only reason _he_ survived the accident was because his real mother had protected him with her body. His adoptive parents, the Carters, also loved him very much, and certainly didn't adopt him because they felt sorry for him, the way a few kids had said.

It didn't help when all those weird things happened either. While the teasing never truly hurt his feelings, since he knew what was said wasn't true, it still made him mad. As a result, things happened when he got angry. There was the time when a boy two years older than him had been teasing him. For no reason at all, the older boy had suddenly flown back into a wall. He tried to claim that Kyle had pushed him, but there were four witnesses who said that Kyle had never even touched the other boy, which was true. Then there was the time when a girl played a prank on him and before he could even think of a good way to prank her back, the girl had somehow fallen into a mud puddle.

Strange things didn't happen just when he was angry, either. Once Kyle's adoptive parents told him that he couldn't leave the table until his plate was clean, even though he hated brussel sprouts. He had stared at his plate of cold brussel sprouts a few minutes after the Carters had finished dinner and left the table, wishing the hated vegetable would disappear. To his utter surprise, the brussel sprouts vanished a few seconds later, leaving his plate empty. After staring at the plate in shock for a few seconds, Kyle had announced that his plate was clean and was allowed to leave the table. He had never told his parents that the food had vanished as if by magic, letting them think he had eaten them. He had told James and Mari about it, though, who had given him funny looks, and then said that he might end up going to the same school Stella and Stuart were attending.

The doorbell rang and Kyle got up to answer the door, wishing that his friends had arrived. However, he knew it couldn't be them, for his father was picking them up and they'd enter through the door leading to the garage, not the front door. A very short and somewhat old man stood at the step, a letter in his hands. "Mum!" Kyle shouted. "Someone's here!"

Mrs. Carter came downstairs and let the man, who introduced himself as Professor Filius Flitwick, into the living room. He handed Kyle the letter, who proceeded to read it. "Is this some sort of joke?" he demanded when he was done. "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? Real magic doesn't exist."

"Mr. Melling, it does exisit," said Professor Flitwick. He pulled out a wand and pointed it at a vase on the table. "_Wingardium Leviosa_!" With a swish and flick of the wand, the vase floated up into the air. He then proceeded to enlarge the vase, shrink it back to its original size, turn it green and then back to its original color of pale blue.

"Oh," said Kyle and Mrs. Carter, looking shocked by the demonstration of magic.

"You are a wizard, Mr. Melling," said Professor Flitwick. "You've been accepted into Hogwarts and will learn to how to use your magic, if you decide to attend."

That's when Kyle remembered that the school the Lydell twins were attending was named Hogwarts. "You mean Stuart and Stella Lydell are wizards too?"

"Yes, though in Miss Lydell's case, she would be called a witch," answered Professor Flitwick, surprised. "How do you know them?"

Kyle explained about being adopted and that he'd known the Lydells back at the orphanage, for they'd acted as older siblings to him also when James had become friends with him. Professor Flitwick nodded and proceeded to explain about Hogwarts and the wizarding world, adding that Muggles, or non-magical people, weren't supposed to know about it, other than the Muggle prime minister, the relatives of a Muggleborn, and any Muggle that happened to marry a witch or wizard. Kyle immediately said that he wanted to go to Hogwarts, and after a few seconds of hesitation, Mrs. Carter agreed, but said that she had to see if her husband agreed as well.

At this point, Mr. Carter arrived with Mari and James. Kyle took the two upstairs while Mr. Carter spoke with Professor Flitwick and his wife. In the end, he agreed that Kyle could attend Hogwarts, and seemed proud pf the fact that his adopted son was magical. Professor Flitwick looked surprised when two letters appeared just before he left, addressed to James Lydell and Mariko Kishi. Mrs. Carter hastily explained that they were Kyle's best friends from the orphanage and were currently visiting. Mari was the only one that came downstairs when Mr. Carter called for the kids, and politely explained that she and James didn't need to have the wizarding world explained because Stella and Stuart had told them about it. She took the letters, thanked Professor Flitwick, and said that Stella and Stuart had volunteered to take them to Diagon Alley and would no doubt be happy to have Kyle go along as well. The tiny teacher looked surprised, but accepted it and after bidding the Carters good-bye, left.

Mari went back upstairs, where Kyle was not very happy with his friends. "Why didn't you tell me about magic sooner?" he demanded. "Stuart and Stella told you guys."

"That's because they figured out we must be magic, since we've done odd stuff before like they did," replied James patiently.

"Well, I've done funny stuff before too. You could have told me, since I'm not a Muggle and am a wizard like you."

Mari sighed. "Kyle, we didn't know if you were a wizard or not. It wasn't until you told us about how you made your brussel sprouts disappear that we wondered if you were magic. But we couldn't be completely sure until you got your Hogwarts letter, so we decided not to say anything."

"I guess," said Kyle. "All right, I forgive you guys. But you could have still told me. I wouldn't tell anyone about it. You know I can keep a secret."

"Which is why I'm about to tell you a big secret about myself," said James. "You can't tell anyone about it, understand, Kyle? The only people to know besides Mari and me are Stella and Stuart, and that's because they found out about it first." He rummaged through his suitcase and took out _Magical Modern History_, which Stella had lent him.

With a puzzled frown, Kyle read the chapter that Mari told him to. The frown disappeared and his eyes widened when he read the description of Harry Potter. He had to read it again to make sure he hadn't skipped anything or misread it. Then he set down the book and stared at his first friend. "You're Harry Potter!" he gasped, putting two and two together. "You've got the black hair, green eyes, and scar! Then that means you're famous, since you're the one that defeated this Lord Voldy-thingy."

"It's Voldemort, though Stuart likes to call him 'Moldy-dork' as a joke," said Mari, giggling.

Kyle laughed. "That's a good nickname." He picked up the book again to finish the chapter. When he was done, he said quietly, "I swear to never, ever, tell anyone that my friend James Lydell is really Harry Potter, even if I were tortured or Moldy-dork appeared and threatened to kill me or anyone close to me."

"You needn't go that far, Kyle, but thanks," said James. "You understand why I just want to be James Lydell and not the famous 'Boy-Who-Lived'?"

"James, if you wanted to be Harry Potter, I'd think something was wrong with you and have you sent to the nuthouse," responded Kyle with a snort. "Either that or I'd stop being friends with you because you'd gotten a big ego. Sure, it'd be nice to be someone famous, but to have people be nice to you because of something you can't really remember and not because of you as a person, would get annoying. And can you imagine having to deal with all the reporters and stuff?"

James and Mari couldn't help laughing, obviously pleased that their best friend understood completely. Kyle joined in the laughter, but quickly sobered as he thought of something. "What about your scar, James? If everybody in the wizarding world knows what you're supposed to look like, then they'll know that you're Harry Potter, no matter how much you try to saw that you're James Lydell." James explained about Metamorphmagi, how he was one, and gave a demonstration of the ability.

Kyle gasped at seeing his friend change his appearance to a virtual copy of Stuart, then to a boy with brown hair and blue eyes, exactly like Kyle. James then turned back to his normal self, explained that he could only move his scar to another part of his body and not make it disappear, and said that while at Hogwarts, he'd change his appearance so that he'd look like the twins' younger brother.

"That's a useful gift," said Kyle, feeling a little envious, but not jealous. "Nobody will ever know who you really are unless you decide to tell them."

James nodded and he and Mari proceeded to tell Kyle everything Stella and Stuart had told them about Hogwarts and the wizarding world.


	4. Chapter 4

The day to go to Diagon Alley arrived. James, who told the Carters that he'd discovered that he was a Metamorphmagus, changed his hair color to a strawberry blond, matching Stella's, and moved his scar to his back. At Gringotts, Mr. and Mrs. Carter exchanged two hundred pounds for forty Galleons and a few sickles and Knuts. Stuart took James to a vault that had been set up by Hogwarts, which contained the school fund. Mari would have gone too, except that one of the goblins, upon hearing her name, had informed her that her parents had left her two vaults. One was the family money, which she would not be allowed to use until she came of age, and the other was her trust fund, to pay for her school things. A simple spell done on a drop of her blood confirmed things and she was handed a key to the vault with her trust fund. She went to that vault and withdrew some money.

The first stop was Flourish and Blotts, for the set books. In order to save money, James asked Stuart if he could just use Stuart's books from first year. Stuart looked surprised, but said he didn't mind, so in the end James just bought his Defense Against Dark Arts book and a couple of secondhand books for background reading that his older 'siblings' didn't have. The next stop was Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. There, James decided to just wear Stuart's old robes, even though they had been secondhand when Stuart had gotten them. James did, however, buy a set of forest green dress robes in case he was ever asked to a party or some other formal occasion, and a small kit for cleaning his glasses.

By the time the group went to Ollivander's Wand Shop, the only things James had bought was a cauldron, telescope, scales, writing supplies, potion ingredients, and phials. Everything except the writing supplies and potion ingredients were second-hand.

Mr. Ollivander was an old man with silvery eyes and appeared slightly creepy. He apparently could remember every wand he had ever sold, for he told Mari about the wands that her parents had and asked Stella and Stuart how their wands were doing. He gave James an odd look when introduced to him, then shook his head and muttered something about imagining things. After that, he started explaining Ollivander wands, asked Kyle which hand was his wand hand, and after taking measurements, handed him a wand to try. Nothing happened and Mr. Ollivander snatched the wand away and handed Kyle another.

After twenty-something wands, Kyle was handed a wand of beech wood, twelve inches, with a core of dragon heartstring. As soon as he touched it, warmth spread through him and blue and red sparks shot out from the end. "Bravo, young man," said Mr. Ollivander. "That's the perfect wand for you. And if the color of the sparks are any indication, you could end up in either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw."

James was next and it took absolutely forever for the perfect wand to choose him. Kyle soon grew bored, and Mari began trying the discarded wands in order to save time. After thirty-something wands, Mari found the perfect wand, ash, ten and a half inches, with unicorn hair core. James tried just about every wand in the store, and other than one of cedar with unicorn hair that produced a feeble blue spark, there was nothing that came close to fitting. Finally Mr. Ollivander thought of something. "A boy came by yesterday to buy his wand, and accidentally broke one. If the core and wood shows some reaction, then I will make up a new wand using the core and the same kind of wood for you, Mr. Lydell." He handed James a broken wand of holly, eleven inches when it had been whole, and phoenix feather core.

A feeble red spark appeared, and James felt a tiny bit of warmth for a second. "Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander thoughtfully. "I'll make up your new wand now. Please wait for a few minutes." He disappeared into a back room and came out fifteen minutes later with a new wand. "Holly, unicorn hair, and phoenix feather, eleven inches. I added the unicorn hair from the wand that produced a small spark, since it seemed that the core must have wanted you."

James took the wand with the double core and instantly felt a wave of warmth spread throughout his body. He waved the wand and sparks of red, blue, green, and yellow appeared. "Oh my!" exclaimed Mr. Ollivander, looking delighted. "Well, you've got the perfect wand at last! And a double core to boot, which doesn't happen very often. I don't normally make wands like that. And with those sparks, you could belong in all of the four houses at Hogwarts." He then frowned and said, "Very curious, that phoenix feather." He went on to explain that the phoenix that had given the feather had given another, which was core of the wand belonging to "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named". That meant James's wand was the brother wand to Voldemort's. James couldn't help making a face, but didn't say anything. A wand was a wand and it was the one that chose a witch or wizard, not the other way around.

After paying for the three wands and leaving, Kyle talked his parents into buying him an owl. James ended up buying one as well, for at Eyelops Owl Emporium, a beautiful snowy owl caught his eye and flew to him when he was about to leave the shop. Since it was clear that she wanted James for an owner, and he had taken a fancy to her, anyway, he bought her. The storeowner had given him a discount on the owl because of this, and Stella later remarked that it was a good thing James had decided to use Stuart's old books and robes or he wouldn't have had the money to pay for the owl.

Mari bought a cat with white fur and black and gold spots, since three-colored cats were considered lucky in Japanese culture. She named her Fortunate Lily, partly because of the good fortune such cats brought and partly because the fur reminded Mari of a white lily with black and gold butterflies on it. James named his owl Hedwig, after a famous witch in his history textbook, and generously said that Mari could use Hedwig to deliver letters whenever she wanted. Mari thanked James, but pointed out that it wasn't really necessary, since the only people she knew that she could send owl mail to would be at Hogwarts. Well, she could write to the Carters, but it wouldn't be often enough to really need an owl of her own.

James rolled his eyes. "I know that, Mari, and also that the same applies to me. Which is why I offered to let you use Hedwig. That way she'll have more mail to deliver."

"Oh, all right then." Mari grinned and went back to reading _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_.

Author's Note: I can't decide between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw for James. A part of him wants to be in Gryffindor like his parents, but another part wants to be Ravenclaw like his foster siblings. So please go to my profile page and vote as to what house James should be in. Thanks! I hope nobody minds that James's wand is somewhat different. Since he's not completely like Harry in the books, he's going to end up with a different wand and some other things. I kept Hedwig, since he needs an owl to keep him company, and didn't change her name because I couldn't really think of a new name and I know I'd forget and write Hedwig if I did. I already found myself writing Harry instead of James a couple of times, but caught the mistakes before I posted the chapters. Well, enjoy this chapter, and I promise that the future chapters are going to be longer.


	5. Chapter 5

On September the first it was time to leave for Hogwarts. James felt very excited about it and paid little attention to Mrs. Draper warning him to behave while he was at boarding school or the other staff telling him to enjoy his time at school and to do the best he could in his lessons. Once at King's Cross, he changed his hair color so that it was in-between Stella's strawberry blonde and Stuart's vivid red, made the shape of his eyes and nose match theirs, moved his scar to his chest, and created a smattering of freckles. Satisfied that he looked like he was really the Lydell twins' younger brother, he boarded the train with Mari and the two went to find Kyle.

On the way, Stuart stopped them and introduced James as his younger brother and Mari as James's best friend to his friends. The three other fourth-years smiled and said they'd help Stuart keep an eye on them at Hogwarts. James and Mari went on their way, only to be stopped by Stella and her friends. The two girls gushed on how cute James was and how pretty Mari was. James felt embarrassed by this and he and Mari were only allowed to leave when Mari pointed out that they had to find their friend Kyle.

The two finally found Kyle in a compartment at the very end of the train, with a round-faced boy with brown hair and eyes, clutching a toad, and a girl with bushy brown hair, brown eyes, rather large front teeth, and a bossy and somewhat nervous air about her. "Hi, guys!" said Kyle cheerfully. "This is Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger. Neville's family are wizards, like your parents, Mari, and Hermione's Muggleborn like me. Neville and Hermione, these are my best friends James Lydell and Mariko Kishi, Mari for short."

James and Mari got settled and that was when the door opened again. A tall, gangly boy with hair as red as Stuart's and an incredibly freckled face stood there. He blinked when he saw the other five. "Oh, I didn't know there were people already in here," he stammered. "Everywhere else was full, too. I can leave."

"No, come join us," said Mari with a friendly smile. "There's an empty seat. I'm Mariko Kishi, Mari for short. What's your name?"

"Ron Weasley," answered the boy. He stowed his trunk and took the empty seat.

"Weasley?" asked James, sounding surprised. "I've heard about your family! I'm James Lydell, and my twin siblings, Stella and Stuart, are fourth years. They said Charlie Weasley, who just graduated, was a very good seeker, the twins Fred and George are pranksters, and that Bill was Head Boy during their first year at Hogwarts."

"They're my brothers," said Ron with a groan. "And there's one more, Percy. He's in fifth year and was just made prefect. And I have a sister named Ginny, who won't be starting Hogwarts until next year."

The remaining three introduced themselves and Ron was surprised to find out that James, Mari, and Kyle were best friends and had grown up together at an orphanage until Kyle had been adopted. Once he'd gotten over his surprise, the six of them began getting to know each other better. Hermione was extremely happy to discover she was a witch, but couldn't help feeling nervous and wondering if she'd fit in. James assured her that there was nothing to worry about, for Muggleborns and those that weren't but had grown up in the Muggle world did well at Hogwarts. He added that it hadn't been necessary to memorize the contents of the textbooks, though it would certainly give you a head start.

"Stuart didn't, though he did look through them, and he did fine once he got to Hogwarts. Stella learned her books by heart, but that's only because she loves reading and remembers everything she reads. Though Mari and I do happen to know everything in our books. That's only because once we found out about magic, we were eager to know more and asked my twin siblings to let us read their books. Of course, we don't know if we can do any of the spells or potions yet, but at least we know all the theoretical stuff."

Hermione relaxed a bit after hearing that and then the conversation turned to Harry Potter. "Did you hear that he was missing?" asked Neville. "He never answered his Hogwarts letter, so Professor Dumbledore had one of the staff look into it. They found out that Harry Potter wasn't with his relatives at all."

Ron nodded. "Turns out his relatives just took him to an orphanage and left him there. His relatives don't even remember the name of the orphanage they left him at, so now people are searching for him. I hope Harry Potter gets found soon."

James felt very uncomfortable with this turn in the conversation, and hoped that nobody would go to Sunnybrook Orphanage and find out about him. Mrs. Draper could certainly tell about how he had shown up on the step almost ten years ago, without a note, and the description of him would lead searchers right to him.

"Well, if his relatives didn't want Harry Potter, then maybe it's a good thing that they left him at an orphanage," said Mari. "If they had kept him, they probably would have been mean to him. This way Harry Potter gets a better life, unless the orphanage he was sent to turns out to be unpleasant."

"Which isn't that likely," said Kyle. "Orphanages today aren't like ones a hundred years ago. Such as the one described in _Oliver Twist_."

"Actually, that was a workhouse and not a proper orphanage," corrected Mari, having also read _Oliver Twist_. "It's a Muggle book, written about a hundred and fifty years ago," she explained for Ron and Neville, who looked confused. "It details the life of an orphan boy named Oliver Twist. A workhouse was a place where really poor people got sent. It wasn't nice at all. The book's more advanced reading, but I read it because I was bored and had run out of children's books to read at the library."

"Well, orphanages back then were just as bad as the workhouses," said Hermione, who was as well read as Mari, being a bookworm.

"Okay, can we talk about something else and not about how bad orphanages and workhouses were back in the 1800's?" asked James. He sincerely wished that Mari and Kyle had never read _Oliver Twist_, or talked him into reading the book as well. Okay, the book had a happy ending for Oliver, but the rest hadn't been all that pleasant.

Ron was quite eager to oblige, since he had never read any Muggle books, and didn't care much for reading unless the book was interesting or it was required for lessons. He mentioned that there had been a break-in at Gringotts, though nothing had been taken. A discussion on why someone would break into Gringotts and try to steal gold or something equally valuable ensued until a smiling witch with a food trolley came by. Ron turned pink and muttered he had sandwiches. James still had three Galleons, ten Sickles, and thirteen Knuts left from his trip to Diagon Alley, so went out to the corridor to see what food was available.

Mari and Kyle, however, told James to save his money and insisted on paying for everything. Since he was used to sharing things with his best friends, regardless of who paid for it, this didn't bother him at all. Between Mari, Kyle, Neville, and Hermione, they ended up buying a little of everything and brought the lot of food into the compartment. They insisted on sharing with Ron when he pulled apart a sandwich and found it to be corned beef, which he didn't like. After a moment of hesitation, he gave in and joined in eating the snacks. Hermione didn't eat too many of the sweets, as her parents were dentists, but did sample everything and let the others explain them to her.

After awhile, Neville noticed that his toad, Trevor, was missing. "Oh no! Gran's going to be mad at me if I don't find Trevor! He was a present from my Great-Uncle Algie for getting into Hogwarts." The others joined him in searching to the toad.

James was not very enthusiastic at searching for a toad, especially since having one for a pet had gone out of fashion years ago, according to Stella. However, Neville saying that it was a present from his great-uncle explained why he had one. No doubt toads had been the popular pet back when the uncle had gone to Hogwarts. Since Neville looked distraught and was a nice person, James went along with the search despite his personal feelings.

People said that they hadn't seen a toad, and in one compartment, a haughty-looking boy with blond hair and a pale pointed face sneered and said, "Who'd be stupid enough to have a toad for a pet? They were out of fashion by the time my father went to school."

Mari snapped, "It's not Neville's fault that he has a toad! It was a present from his Great-Uncle, who no doubt went to Hogwarts at a time when toads were popular."

"Who are you?" demanded the boy, while the two thickset and mean looking boys next to him cracked their knuckles.

"Mariko Kishi. You're a Malfoy, aren't you? I read a book on wizarding genealogy and it said that Malfoys tend to have blond hair and pale faces. "

The boy looked surprised. "I am. My name is Draco Malfoy."

"Well, don't expect me to associate with you," sniffed Mari. "The Kishis are an old pureblood family from Japan, and have been around much longer than your family. Several Kishis have been the Japanese equivalent of the Minister of Magic. They're much too proud to ever be friends with someone who would bow and scrape to a wizard claiming to be lord."

Malfoy glared at her, then spotted Ron. "Well, what about him? He's clearly a Weasley. They're blood traitors and poor, yet you're associating with him."

"First, the Weasleys are about as old a family as mine is. Second, they never served Lord Moldy-dork, or any other wizard that was trying to take power. So it doesn't matter to me if they're poor or if some people consider them blood traitors. The only pureblood wizards that I will not be associating with are those whose that served Moldy-dork or are prejudiced against Muggleborns. Well, since you haven't seen a toad, we'll be leaving now."

Ron and Neville stared at Mari in shock. "I thought you were orphan and grew up in the wizarding world," said Neville.

"Yes, but at Gringotts, I was informed that my parents had left me money," responded Mari. "I realized that my parents were wizards then, so I got a book on wizarding genealogy. It listed all the pureblood families in Europe and Asia. None for North America, since there really aren't any pureblood families now. They happily married with Muggles and Muggleborns and so most wizarding people in North America, particularly the States, are halfbloods."

"Well, I'm glad you put that Malfoy in his place," said Ron. "He deserved it. And I love the nickname you came up for You-Know-Who."

"Oh, I didn't come up with it, James's brother Stuart was the one who did. He said someone that was defeated by a baby deserved a stupid nickname like that."

"You were right about the Malfoy family serving You-Know-Who," said Neville. "The only reason Draco's father isn't in Azkaban is because after You-Know-Who's defeat, Mr. Malfoy claimed that he'd been bewitched. And I heard that he gave the Ministry some gold as well."

"Bribery," said Hermione in disgust. "Though maybe Mr. Malfoy _had_ been bewitched."

"Maybe, maybe not," said James shrugging. "People will say or do anything to get out of trouble. Like when I made puppy-dog eyes to get out being punished for a prank I played."

"Well, our pranks were always harmless and just for a laugh," said Kyle. "So there's a difference. If it had been something serious, we'd have accepted punishment."

"Point taken. We're at the compartment Stuart and his friends are in. Let's ask them if they'd seen Trevor."

Stuart and his friends hadn't seen the toad, but with a wicked grin, Stuart said that he would be happy to find Trevor with a Summoning Spell. "_Accio Trevor_!" Several seconds later, a toad came whizzing towards them, while there were shrieks and people popping out of their compartments to complain of being smacked with a toad.

"Sorry!" shouted Stuart, not sounding sorry at all. "Someone was looking for his toad and I thought I'd help him find it by Summoning it."

Ron's twin brothers, Fred and George, and a boy with dreadlocks that was apparently their friend were the only ones that weren't annoyed or disgusted. In fact, they found it quite funny, and said the incident was along the lines of a prank. "I know," said Stuart, grinning. "That's why I did it." He handed Trevor to Neville, who thanked him.

Stella and her friends did not find it amusing, but weren't annoyed once they found out why Stuart had done it. However, Stella did say, "You could warned the other students before you did the spell. Nobody wants to be hit by a toad or be surprised by having one fly right past them."

Back in the compartment, James and his friends resumed their conversation. They were wondering what house they would get in and how the Sorting took place. James and Mari only knew what Stella had told them, that the Sorting wasn't dangerous or anything, just that they'd be sent to a house based on their qualities. She didn't say how their qualities would be determined or anything, as she wanted it to be a surprise. Stuart, on the other hand, said a bunch of stuff that they were sure he'd just made up to scare them. Honestly, first-years wouldn't be expected to wrestle a troll or fight a werewolf.

Ron couldn't help chuckling at that, saying, "That's what Fred told me, that we'd have to wrestle a troll."

"Oh, Stuart went into more detail than that," said James. "He said that if you went blindly in to fight the troll, that meant you were brave and rash enough for Gryffindor. If you looked up information on how to deal with it, that meant you were in Ravenclaw. If you ran away like a wimp, you were in Hufflepuff, and if you tried to get the troll to work for you, you were in Slytherin. Then Stuart backtracked and said that Hufflepuff wasn't for wimps, it's just what Slytherins said, and he couldn't really figure out how to apply being loyal and hard-working to fighting a troll, unless it was working hard to defeat the troll or not running away but staying to help a friend if he or she was there with you."

"If what Stuart said was true, he should have been in Gryffindor and not Ravenclaw," added Mari. "He's more likely to jump in and fight the troll and not look up information on how to deal with it first. Stella's the one that would look up information unless there was no time to do so. Then she'd use what she already knew to deal with the situation."

Everyone chuckled and then discussed the houses. Ron wanted to be in Gryffindor as his entire family (except Ginny, who hadn't started yet) had been Sorted there, though he wouldn't mind Ravenclaw. He didn't want to be in Slytherin, adding that he'd probably leave Hogwarts if he got Sorted there. Hermione wanted to be in Gryffindor, since it sounded by far the best, but she had no objections to Ravenclaw and thought that she had the qualities of one. Neville said his grandmother would like him to be in Gryffindor like his parents, but concluded dismally that he'd probably be in Hufflepuff instead.

"There's nothing wrong with Hufflepuff, and you should tell your grandmother that," said James. "Being there shows that you're a very loyal person and not afraid of hard work. It doesn't mean that you're not brave, just that it's not the foremost of your qualities. I have no problem if I got in Hufflepuff. Though I would prefer Ravenclaw since my siblings are there, or Gryffindor because, er, Professor Dumbledore was in that house." He could hardly say the real reason, that his parents had been in that house.

"I don't care what house I'm in," said Kyle. "Any of them would be fine with me. Though I suppose Slytherin wouldn't really work, since I'm Muggleborn as far as I know."

"Well, I want to be in Ravenclaw or Slytherin," announced Mari. Everyone stared at her in shock and she sighed and explained, "I'm not evil, nor think that purebloods are superior. I simply have ambition and a little bit of cunning, and want to prove that not all Slytherins live up to their nasty reputation. I want to become one of the very few decent Slytherins and work to change Slytherin around. One of you should join me there and help me. Ron and Neville, you'd be the best choices since you're both purebloods and would be accepted."

Ron looked horrified, then thoughtful as what Mari said sunk in. "You have a point," he finally admitted. "I guess I could do that, though I don't know what my parents will think. Fred and George will probably take the mickey out of me for the rest of my life if I was in Slytherin. And I know Percy definitely won't like it. Bill would support me, and maybe Charlie also."

"I have an idea," said Kyle. "Why don't we all try to get Sorted into different houses? We'll still be friends regardless of where we are, and it'll be a sign of inter-house unity. And we can try to get the other first-years to become friends with those outside their house. I think the Founders of Hogwarts would be happy to have inter-house unity."

"That's a great idea," said James enthusiastically. The others agreed and it was decided that Mari and Ron would try to get into Slytherin, James and Hermione in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, Kyle in Hufflepuff, and Neville in either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. Since Stella did say that the Sorting was conducted alphabetically, that meant Hermione would be first of the group to be Sorted. If she got into Gryffindor, then James would try to get Ravenclaw, and if she were in Ravenclaw, then he would try Gryffindor.

With that decided, they turned the conversation to the different houses at Hogwarts until the Hogwarts Express arrived at the station. Everyone got off the train and the older students headed for carriages, which would take them to the castle. The first-years went to a giant of a man calling them over, whom James recognized as Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper, from Stuart's description of him. He led everyone to a small fleet of boats at the edge of the lake, for that was how they were going to get to the castle. Four people were to a boat and James, Mari, and Kyle got into one with a girl with blonde hair done in a pigtail. Hermione, Ron, and Neville got into another boat and were joined by a girl with auburn hair.

Hagrid got into the lead boat and with that, they were off. Everyone gasped in wonder when they saw the castle that was Hogwarts. After reaching the other side, Hagrid led the way up a dark path to the entrance. Neville tripped and lost hold of Trevor, but Hagrid caught the toad and returned it. Finally they reached the large front doors and Hagrid knocked loudly.


	6. Chapter 6

The door swung open and there stood Professor McGonagall, who was the lady that had told the Lydell twins about the wizarding world and Hogwarts. Her dark hair was done up in a severe bun as it had then, but instead of a blouse and grey skirt and jacket she now wore robes of emerald green. She had looked somewhat stern during the visit, but now she looked so stern that James privately thought that crossing her would be a Very Bad Idea. He made a note to never play any pranks, or at least none that would result in him getting caught, because he didn't think his puppy-dog eyes or charming smile would work on her. No wonder Stuart had said it would be best to not get on the bad side of the Deputy Headmistress and Head of Gryffindor, though she was very fair, loved Quidditch, and did have a soft side, though she rarely showed it around the students.

Professor McGonagall led the first years to a small room next to the Great Hall, which from the noise sounded as if the rest of the school was there. She proceeded to give a speech on the four houses that they'd shortly be Sorted into, how your house would be like your family, and the point system. She finally ended with the fact that the Sorting would begin in a few minutes and the suggestion that they smarten themselves as much as they could while they were waiting.

Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and Ron's nose, which was still a bit smudged even though he had wiped it earlier. James nervously adjusted his glasses and attempted to flatten his hair, which was still a bit messy despite his Metamorphmagus powers, though not as messy as his real hair.

"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."

James began fiddling with the left sleeve of his robes in his nervousness. He completely forgot about the plan at the moment to just wish that he would get into a house, any house, and not be told that it was all mistake and he wasn't magical at all. He looked enviously at Mari, who looked extremely composed and showed no sign of any nervousness or fear.

Then something happened which made him jump about a foot in the air – several people behind him screamed. "What the –?" He gasped. So did the people around him. Though James had been told about the ghosts at Hogwarts, it was still a shock to see about twenty ghosts streaming through the back wall. Once he got over his shock, he realized that they were arguing, and the subject of it seemed to be Peeves the poltergeist.

A ghost in ruff and tights, which James recognized from Stella's description to be the ghost of Gryffindor house, was the first to notice the first years. The Fat Friar added that he hoped to see them in Hufflepuff, his old house. Professor McGonagall returned at that point, told the ghosts to move on, and then led the first years into the Great Hall. Though the Lydell twins had given many descriptions of the Great Hall and he'd read the description in _Hogwarts, a History_, James still couldn't help gazing around in wonder. Reading and hearing descriptions wasn't the same as actually seeing it for yourself. He glanced up at the ceiling, which was velvety black and dotted with stars. _So _Hogwarts, a History_ was right about the ceiling being enchanted to look like the sky outside_, James thought. _Though it is hard to believe that there's a ceiling at all just by looking at it._

He quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. The hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. He finally remembered that _Hogwarts, a History_had mentioned that Godric Gryffindor enchanting his hat in order to make the Sorting easier, but it hadn't gone into further detail. He put that with what Stella had said and gasped. _So all we have to do was try on Gryffindor's enchanted hat, who would then look at our qualities and Sort us into a house based on what it saw!_ he thought. _I'm going to have get Stuart back. I knew he was joking about the wrestling a troll and fighting a werewolf, but he still didn't have to try to scare me with those stories when it was just as simple as trying on a hat!_

His thoughts were confirmed when a rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing. It sang a pretty decent, though slightly long, song about the four houses.

The whole school burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again. "So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to James. "I knew Fred had to be joking about wrestling a troll, but still! I don't find this funny one bit."

"I'll help you get him back," James whispered back. "I'm already planning to prank Stuart for doing the same thing to me. You can help me if you want."

Ron considered for a moment. "I'll help you prank Stuart, but I think my getting into Slytherin will be enough payback for Fred for now."

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"

The girl with pigtails that had been in the same boat as James, Kyle, and Mari stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause –"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. James saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.

"Bones, Susan!" The auburn-haired girl that had been in the boat with Ron, Hermione, and Neville hurried up to the stool and put on the hat.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The second table from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them, Stella among them.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; James could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling.

"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was James's imagination, after all he'd heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked an unpleasant lot. Well, if Mari and Ron ended up there, things could change for the better for that house.

Sometimes, James noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnegan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Neville in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.

"Granger, Hermione!" Hermione ran eagerly up to the stool and jammed the hat on her head. James crossed his fingers and several seconds later, it called out, "GRYFFINDOR!" She dropped the hat on the stool and hurried to the Gryffindor table, saying, "Good luck," to her new friends as she ran past them.

Next of the sextet to be Sorted was Mari. She calmly made her way to the stool, for all the world like a princess, and regally placed the hat on her head. After a minute, it shouted, "SLYTHERIN!" She removed the hat and made her way to the Slytherin table, head held high and what could only be a smirk on her face. James was very surprised, as Mari wasn't the type to smirk, until she winked at him just before she sat down. Then he realized it was just an act.

Neville was next. He tripped on his way to the stool due to his nervousness. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted "GRYFFINDOR", Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter (other than from his friends, though Ron and James had to work hard to keep from laughing) to give it to James.

James sat down on the stool and put the Sorting Hat on his head, his nervousness returning. He gave a start of surprise when a voice in his head said, "So, you're not really who you claim to be are you? You were born Harry James Potter, not James Evan Lydell."

He felt a second of panic, but calmed down when the hat said, "Relax, there's such a thing as student/Sorting Hat confidentiality. I won't tell anyone your secret. Now, where shall I place you? You're loyal to your friends and foster siblings and don't mind a bit of hard work, you enjoy reading and are quite smart, you have courage and can be a bit rash at times, and you also have some ambition and can be cunning when it's necessary. Frankly, you have the qualities of all the houses, Mr. 'Lydell'."

_Just put me in Ravenclaw_, thought James. _My foster siblings are there and I want to be with them, and my friends and I made a deal to be in separate houses in order to bring about inter-house unity. If Hermione got put in Gryffindor, I was to -_

"There's no need to say more, I saw the promise you and your friends made in Miss Granger's mind," said the hat. "All right, your wish is granted, you will go to - RAVENCLAW!"

The last word was shouted out to the entire Great Hall. Feeling relieved, he removed the hat and went to the Ravenclaw table, where Stuart clapped him on the back and Stella smiled and said, "Welcome to Ravenclaw. I'm so glad that you're in the same house as Stuart and me."

After Morag MacDougal and Draco Malfoy (who was Sorted into Slytherin), it was Kyle's turn. He seemed to be arguing with the hat, since he made a face and then his lips moved soundlessly. Finally the hat shouted out, "HUFFLEPUFF!" Kyle removed it, a happy grin on his face, and took a seat between Susan Bones and Justin Finch-Fletchley.

Ron was the penultimate person called and he looked green as he made his way to the stool. James crossed his fingers and Mari loooked anxious. She relaxed when the hat called out "SLYTHERIN!" and was the only person at the table to clap. Everyone else looked stunned that a Weasley had been Sorted into Slytherin, except for James, Neville, Kyle, and Hermione, who also began clapping. After a moment of shocked silence, Fred and George joined in. Percy's expression turned from shock to one of mild disgust. As Blaise Zabini was being Sorted, Hermione leaned over and quietly explained to the three Weasleys why Ron was in Slytherin. The twins looked pleased that they had supported their brother, while Percy's look of disgust disappeared and he seemed thoughtful. As Blaise was declared a Slytherin, Percy said, "I can understand, but I wish Ron could have done the inter-house unity by being in Ravenclaw of Hufflepuff. Well, it would be nice if Slytherin's reputation was changed, so I guess I'll accept it and hope that Ron does a good job."

With the Sorting over, Professor McGonagall rolled up the scroll with the list of names and took the Sorting Hat away. James looked down at his empty golden plate. He had only just realised how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed ages ago.

Albus Dumbledore had got to his feet. He was beaming at the students, arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. James didn't know whether to laugh or not until he remembered Stuart telling him that Dumbledore had a habit of saying nonsense words to make the beginning-of-term feasts appear. He looked at the table and his mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now filled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup and, for some strange reason, mint humbugs.

While everyone had gotten enough to eat at the orphanage and the food was quite good, it wasn't anything like this. Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the humbugs and began to eat. It was all delicious. As he ate, he joined in the conversation his new housemates were having and got to know the other first-years better. Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot seemed rather nice, but he wasn't sure about Michael Croner. Lisa Turpin, Su Ling, and Padma Patil vaguely reminded him of Mari, and Mandy Brocklehurst was like Hermione in her eagerness. Morag MacDougal appeared rather shy and quiet, for she only spoke when someone asked her a question and her answers were brief. She aslo didn't seem to like her first name, for she winced when someone first said her name.

When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates leaving them as clean as before. A moment later the puddings appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, rice pudding… Since dessert, other than pudding, had never been served except on holidays or when it was someone's birthday, James eagerly helped himself to some ice cream and treacle tart.

At this point, Stella got around to asking why Mari and Ron were Slytherin and Kyle in Hufflepuff, and why James didn't seem disappointed not to be in the same house as his friends. The other Ravenclaws were surprised upon hearing him explain the promise he and his friends had made. Several looked thoughtful, and the other first-years, except Michael Ccroner, said that perhaps they would make friends with people in the other three houses and help with the inter-house unity. A number of the older students said they would do the same thing, or be more open with the friendships they had with Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Not everyone was very happy about it, though. A curly-haired second-year girl said that she had no intention of doing any such thing, especially being friends with a Slytherin, though her friend, who looked Asian, frowned at that and said she would be more open-minded.

James, happy that the idea was being accepted by half the Ravenclaws, glanced at the staff table. His gaze rested on a teacher in a turban, who was talking to a greasy-haired, sallow-faced, hook-nosed man who was next to him. That was when James felt a flash of pain in his scar. "Ouch!" he exclaimed, clapping a hand to his chest.

Padma gave him a look of concern and Stuart leaned over to ask, "Are you all right, James?"

"Y-yes," responded James. The pain was gone as fast it had come. "Who's that teacher in the turban? You know, the one that's talking to, er, I guess Professor Snape?"

Stuart nodded. "Yep. Head of Slytherin and teaches Potion. The teacher in the turban is Professor Quirrell. He taught Muggle Studies, but took last year off to travel and is now the Defense Against Dark Arts teacher. I don't know about the turban, though. He's never worn one before. I guess he picked it up in the Middle East or someplace."

At last, the puddings too disappeared and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent. He proceeded to give the start-of-term notices, his gaze flickering to Fred and George as he said that the forest on the grounds was forbidden to all pupils. After telling that magic was forbidden in the corridors and about Quidditch tryouts, he ended with the fact that the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side was out of bounds to everyone that did not wish to die a very painful death.

James laughed, but he was one of the few that did. To his surprise, Stuart didn't laugh, and instead exchanged a puzzled look with Stella.

"He's not actually serious, is he?" he muttered to Stella.

"Must be," said Stella, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere – the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. Which reminds me, I don't want to find you ever going there. Stuart went in during out first year and was lucky not to get hurt or caught."

With the notices over, Dumbledore announced the singing of the school song. The other teachers' smiles appeared rather fixed at this point.

Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick as if he was trying to get a fly off the end and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself snake-like into words.

"Everyone pick their favourite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"

James started singing the school song to the first tune that came to his mind, which happened to be "The Rainbow Connection" from _The Muppet Movie_, that he'd seen last year. Everybody finished the song at different times and finally only the Weasley twins were left signing along to a very slow funeral march.

Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

The Ravenclaw first-years followed the fifth-year prefects up to their common room. Unlike the other houses, which had passwords, the Ravenclaw common room could only be accessed by answering a question that the bronze knocker asked. If you got it wrong, you had to wait until someone came along that answered the question correctly.

When the group arrived at the entrance, the knocker asked, "What has no beginning and no end?"

There was moment of silence as everyone thought. Finally the male prefect said "A phoenix" at the exact same time as Morag said quietly, "A circle."

"Both answers are correct," said the knocker and the door opened to let the group in. James went with the other boys up the staircase to the boys' dorms. He entered one that had a sign marked "First years". Inside were five four-poster beds, all with blue and grey hangings. Their trunks were at the foot of the beds. The five first-years boys talked for a bit, then changed into their pyjamas, brushed their teeth, and went to bed.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: This chapter is going to be devoted to how things are going the first night for the other three houses and not on James and the Ravenclaws.

Mari was not happy when she discovered that the password to the Slytherin common room was "Always Pure", but hid her disgust and didn't grimace the way Ron did. Once everyone was in the common room, Draco Malfoy rounded on Mari. "Why did you get Sorted here? I thought you hated Slytherin and wouldn't want to be here."

"I never said that," answered Mari coolly. "I merely said that I wasn't going to associate with those that were stupid enough to serve a wizard that wanted to take over the world."

"What about that idiot Weasley?" demanded Malfoy. "He's a blood traitor and shouldn't be here. Just like how you shouldn't be here because you said you were friends with him."

"Blood traitor or not, Ron is still a pureblood," Mari said sharply, though she still showed no emotion at all. "I believe that as long as said student isn't Muggleborn, he or she would be considered a candidate for Slytherin by the Sorting Hat? Do I have to exert my influence to get you to behave, Draco Malfoy? My family is an older one than yours, even if they are from Japan, and as a cousin of mine happens to be the current Minister of Magic of Japan, I can write to him. Since I believe that your father is connected to the British Minister of Magic, I wonder what he'll say when he finds out from Minister Fudge that the cousin of Minister Kishi of Japan has threatened to cut connections with Britain unless his cousin gets some respect from her housemates at Hogwarts. I doubt your father will be pleased."

This was actually more of an empty threat, for while Mari was aware that she had relatives that were high-up in Japan, she had never seen them since her parents had died, nor heard from them in any way. It was enough, however, to make Malfoy back off and mutter an apology of sorts.

"Apology accepted," said Mari. "Now, if you want to be Slytherin's prince, at least among the first-years, go ahead. However, Malfoy, I would like remind you that for every prince there's a princess. And the princess is going to have equal power to the prince." She glanced at Pansy Parkinson, who would be perfectly happy to be Slytherin's princess, at least for the first-years. "It's not going to be you, Pansy. The Kishis are an older family than yours, none of your family members was ever Minister of Magic, and you look too much like a pug to ever attract too many followers without having to resort to bribery or threats."

Pansy gave a shriek of rage, which Mari ignored. The older students looked on at the scene, deciding not to interfere just yet. Mari glided over to Millicent Bulstrode, who was hanging back ever since Pansy had made a comment about her weight and the fact that she could be a female version of Crabbe and Goyle. "The next time Pansy tries to make fun of you, just point out that she looks like a pug and would never get a husband based on her looks, Millicent."

Millicent blinked, then smiled. "I'll do that, Mariko. Thanks."

"Call me Mari. Nobody calls me Mariko unless I'm in trouble. Do you mind if I call you Millie for short?"

"No. My mother calls me Millie. You're nice, Mari. I'm glad that you're in Slytherin, though I don't know why."

"Oh, it was because of Slytherin's reputation," replied Mari. "Ambition and cunning aren't bad qualities, but when used the wrong way, they are. I wanted to show that even if you have ambition and cunning, you're not necessarily evil, and help change Slytherin's awful reputation. Ron Weasley decided that he wanted to help me."

Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass, the other two first-year girls, exchanged looks and then moved to join Mari and Millie. "That's interesting," said Daphne. "Do you think Tracey and I can help you and the Weasley boy?"

"Yes," said Mari, pleased at what was happening and hoping that she could go on to change their views on Muggleborns, if they were prejudiced against them. She beckoned Ron over.

Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini looked at each other, then between Malfoy and Mari. Thoughtful looks were on their faces. Finally Blaise moved to stand next to Mari and Ron. "You have a point, Mari. The other three houses are against us just because of our reputation. If it was changed, then things would be better. I'll help you."

Theodore looked once more at Malfoy, who was fuming, then at Mari and her group. A majority of the first-years were with Mari, and that, plus the fact that what she had said made sense, made up his mind for him. He joined Mari's group, deciding that he did want to change the reputation of Slytherin House for the better.

Malfoy now looked furious. Only Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy were with him, since the older students were staying out of it. "This can't be happening!" He turned to Crabbe and Goyle and snapped, "You idiots, do something! Scare them into leaving Mariko Kishi!

Mari glided over to them, shaking her head. "Now, that's no way to talk to your friends, Draco Malfoy. You can't just call them idiots."

"I can call them whatever I want!" raged Malfoy. "They are idiots! They're little better than Squibs and don't have half a brain between them and only exist to do my bidding!"

Now, it was true that Crabbe and Goyle were a few Knuts short of a Sickle, but they still had some sense and it was an exaggeration to say that they didn't have half a brain between them. What Malfoy said registered with them and they weren't very pleased that he was insulting them.

Mari shook her head. "That's not how you're supposed to behave. You're supposed to be polite and respectful of everyone, unless they're really annoying or are evil. Crabbe and Goyle haven't done anything to show that they're evil or annoying, so you can't insult them like that."

"Shut up!" snapped Malfoy. "I'll do whatever I want! Keep you nose out of my business or go back to Japan, where you belong!"

"I'm a British citizen," retorted Mari. "I was born in Britain, like my parents and grandparents before me." That was only mostly true, for her paternal grandmother had actually been born in Japan, according to the book on wizarding genealogy. Her paternal grandfather had apparently gone to Japan to find a wife. "Vincent, Gregory, if you don't like how Malfoy's treating you you're welcome to join me. I'll never call you names or insult you, and I'll make sure the group doesn't either."

The two boys looked at each other, and then made up their minds. They moved to stand next to Mari, ignoring Malfoy, who was beyond furious now. He only refrained from throwing a tantrum because a seventh year boy told him to act like a proper Malfoy and Slytherin and not like a little kid just because he lost a power struggle.

"I'm happy to have you two join us," said Mari. "Can we call you Greg and Vince for short?"

The two had no objections and after that, Professor Snape appeared to speak to the Slytherins. He warned everyone to at least behave like they were getting along in public, since three-quarters of the school were already against them, and that if there were any problems to come to him. At that, Malfoy immediately told Snape what was going on with him and Mari, but Mari said, "All I want to do is change Slytherin's reputation for the better so people stop hating us. Malfoy's just throwing a tantrum because all the other first-years besides Pansy decided to side with me and help me do exactly that."

Snape frowned. "That is an admirable thing to do, but keep in mind that you have to get along with Mr. Malfoy outside of the common room, Miss Kishi. The same goes for you, Mr. Malfoy. We can't let the rest of the school know that two first-years aren't getting along with the rest. Now, everyone please go to bed."

The Slytherins nodded and went to their dorm rooms. Malfoy tried to threaten Greg and Vince into leaving Mari, but Blaise and Theodore, who asked to be called Theo, defended them, and after a bit of hesitation, Ron did the same. In the first-year girls' dorm, Pansy was fuming, but the other four girls ignored her and began talking about how to change Slytherin's reputation. At first Millie, Tracey, and Daphne were shocked when Mari said that they had to be friends with students for other houses, including Muggleborns, but reluctantly agreed to go along with it when it was pointed out that Muggleborns were just as capable as purebloods or they wouldn't be able to handle the wizarding world.

With that decided, the four girls broke up the conversation and got ready for bed.

In the Gryffindor common room, Percy had spread the reason why Ron was in Slytherin, and after a bit of pestering, Neville and Hermione revealed the plan about inter-house unity. This made many of the Gryffindors look thoughtful as they considered things. Finally the other first-years and some of the older students said they wanted to take part, though understandably they were a leery about being friends with a Slytherin.

"Well, I don't know about the other Slytherins, but Mari and Ron are nice and would be good friends," said Hermione. "And from what I've seen of Mari, she'd probably talk the other first-years, except maybe for that Malfoy boy, to joining her and seeing things her way. So we first-years shouldn't have much problem with making friends in Slytherin."

Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil exchanged looks, then shrugged and said they would be willing to try. After some hesitiation, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan said they'd do the same. Sally-Ann Perks went along at that point, while the remaining two first-years were undecided about being friends with Slytherins.

In Hufflepuff, Kyle told the other first-years about the inter-house unity plan. He wasn't sure if it was wise to do it so early, but he had a feeling that Mari would start away, and he knew that James would have told Stella and Stuart about it, who might have then told the other Ravenclaws. And if Percy and the Weasley twins questioned why Ron was in Slytherin and Neville and Hermione told them the reason, the Gryffindors might find out about it early too.

Justin Finch-Fletchley and Ernie Macmillan were definitely interested, but Zacharais Smith, a haughty-looking boy, didn't seem interested at all. He yawned when Kyle was done explaining and said that he was going to bed, adding that nothing would induce him to be friends with a Slytherin. Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, and Claire Harper were a uncertain about the becoming friends with Slytherin part, but were willing to take part in helping create inter-house unity and being friends with Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. The remaining two girls were undecided. As it was getting late, the first-years ended the conversation there and went to bed.


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning, at breakfast, James stopped at the Slytherin table to say hello to Mari and Ron. They introduced the other first-years, other than Malfoy and Pansy, and explained that they were willing to go along with changing Slytherin's reputation and somewhat favoring the idea of inter-house unity. When James went on to the Hufflepuff table to say hello to Kyle, Theo asked, "What's James's blood status? I don't recall Lydell being a wizarding name."

Mari frowned slightly, but answered, "He's a halfblood," which was the truth, after all. Ron opened his mouth, no doubt to ask how she knew that, but a look from her silenced him.

Theo gave a start. "He's a halfblood? Well, that's better than a Mudblood, anyway. But it's still not -"

"Ron, be quiet," snapped Mari, seeing that her friend had taken offense and was about to say something. "Theodore Nott, if you wish to continue being my friend, then kindly refrain from saying rude things about one of my two best friends since I was six. And please don't use the word 'Mudblood' again when referring to Muggleborns."

Theo flushed and said, "I'm sorry. It's just that I was brought up to think that Mud-Muggleborns were -"

"I understand, Theo," interrupted Mari. "But you need to keep an open mind. Muggleborns adjust quite well to the wizarding world. And what about those that aren't Muggleborn but are forced to grow up in the Muggle world? After all, if one was left an orphan and the Muggle authorities took charge and couldn't find relatives since they knew nothing about the wizarding world, they could very well send the child to a Muggle orphanage. Then when said child turned eleven and learned about magic, it be exactly as if he or she was Muggleborn."

"Growing up in the Muggle world?" asked Tracey, shuddering. "That would be awful!"

Mari was about to say that it had happened to her, but then changed her mind. Her position among the Slytherin first-years wasn't firmly entrenched, and the others, besides Ron, could turn away from her and side with Pansy and Malfoy if they knew right now. Well, maybe Vince and Greg wouldn't, since they really weren't that smart and didn't appreciate Malfoy insulting them, and as a result, could possibly not care what world she had grown up in for the past five years.

James left the Gryffindor table, where he had just bid Hermione and Neville a good-morning and been introduced to their yearmates. Other than two that were uncertain, they all wanted to take part in promoting inter-house unity, though had some reservations about befriending Slytherins. Several older students also wanted to take part, though they also had reservations about befriending Slytherins. That was understandable, considering the animosity the two houses had for centuries.

When the mail arrived, James got something of a shock seeing so many owls fly in. Hedwig was one of the owls that flew in, even though she carried no letter or parcel. James gave her some toast and bacon, stroked her feathers, and then she took off again. He resumed eating as next to him, Su Ling began reading the _Daily Prophet_, which she had delivered to her every day. "Hmm, Harry Potter still hasn't been found," she commented. "Today they're going to search Coldwell Orphanage, and tomorrow go to Sunnybrook Orphanage."

At that, James choked on his pumpkin juice. Anthony, who was on his other side, pounded him on the back, while Su turned to ask, "Are you all right, James?"

"The juice went down the wrong tube," James responded once he could speak. He then shot his older siblings a worried look.

"Isn't Sunnybrook Orphanage where you grew up in, Stella?" asked Marissa Stephans, Stella's friend. "Why are they even searching there? You would have said something if Harry Potter turned up there, since you were five around the time he defeated You-Know-Who and already at the orphanage."

"I don't think they know about it," said Stuart. "I'm going to tell Dumbledore and ask him to tell the searchers that there's no reason to go to Sunnybrook Orphanage." With that, he got up and went to the staff table.

James calmed down and managed to finish the rest of his breakfast, though he had little appetite after hearing what Su had said.

After breakfast was Charms, taught by Professor Flitwick. It was a very interesting class, and Flitwick was a good and fairly easy-going teacher. That was followed by Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. It was very clear that crossing was a Very Bad Idea, for she immediately gave a speech on how anyone who misbehaved would leave her class and not return. She then turned her desk into a pig. Everyone was impressed, but then disappointed when they found out that they wouldn't be learning such difficult magic yet. After taking some complicated notes, each student was given a match and told to turn it into a needle.

Padma, Su, Anthony, and Terry were the first ones to succeed, winning a point each for Ravenclaw and a rare smile from McGonagall. James finally managed to do the same towards the end of class, though the end with the eye was a little too much like the end of the match. Mandy was the other person that also managed to succeed before the end of class. Nobody else was able to turn their match into a needle, but since they were Ravenclaws, managed to get some changes on their matches, ranging from it going silvery and pointy, but still made of wood, to actually looking like a needle except still having the colors of the match. Other houses tended to have at least one student that didn't make any changes at all.

That was followed by lunch, and on the way to the Great Hall, James, Terry, and Anthony managed to be unlucky enough to lose their way and try to force their way through a locked door in hopes of it being a shortcut. It turned out to be the out-of-bounds third-floor corridor, and when Filch caught them, refused to believe that they were lost, even when James tried his puppy-dog eyes and sweet smile and Terry attempted to sweet-talk the old caretaker. They only avoided punishment when Professor Quirrell happened to pass by and rescued them, pointing out that as first-years, they wouldn't know the castle well and logically could get lost.

Lunch was then followed by Herbology, taken with the Slytherins and taught by Professor Sprout. Though Ravenclaw naturally sided with the rest of the school in matters like Quidditch and the House Cup, it was the one house Slytherin got along the best with. Partly it was due to the fact that Slytherins prized intelligence, though not quite as much as they did ambition and cunning. It also wasn't a disgrace if someone from a family of Slytherins ended up in Ravenclaw, though it definitely wasn't encouraged. Therefore, the two houses got along fairly well during the lesson, and most of the Slytherins and Ravenclaws partnered together in effort to promote inter-house unity and see if they could befriend one another. Mari had to partner with Mandy and Ron with Terry, though, since the other Slytherins wouldn't go quite as far as to be paired with a Muggleborn unless told to by the teacher.

There were no more classes after that, so it was decided that all the first-years that were willing to participate in promoting inter-house unity would look for a place for them all to meet. They couldn't really do it at the library, since it could create noise that Madam Pince wouldn't like. An empty classroom wouldn't do, either, because none of the classrooms could fit thirty people, only twenty-five at most. Finally, when they were walking back and forth opposite a tapestry of a wizard attempting to teach trolls to do ballet, a door appeared. Everyone froze to stare at the door and then Dean worked up the courage to open it. Inside was a large room, able to fit at least thirty people, with a number of comfortable sofas and armchairs, three tables that could seat twelve people each, several bookcases, and two cupboards. On the walls were hangings of each of the four houses.

"Wow," said Seamus. "That's the perfect place for us to meet. But how did it appear like that?"

James gasped, remembering that his siblings had told him about a room they'd found out from one of the Hogwarts house-elves, one that would appear when there was need of it. Most students didn't know about it, though a number had accidentally stumbled on it when they needed it and then never found it again. It looked as if this was the room.

"I think I know what this room is," said Mari, apparently remembering the same thing James did. She gestured at him. "This is James Lydell, one of my two best friends, and his twin siblings told us about a room that they found out about from one of the house-elves at Hogwarts. It's called the Room of Requirement and only appears when there is a great need of it. I suppose when we were walking back and forth in this corridor and thinking about a place to meet, we caused the room to appear. Most students don't know about it, though I'm sure plenty have accidentally stumbled on the room and then never found it again."

Everyone went inside and immediately promised not to reveal the existance of the room to others unless anyone else wanted to join their group on promoting inter-house unity. They decided that it wouldn't include anyone that was over second-year since the older students could try to run things. After a few suggestions, there was a vote and United Hogwarts was the name decided on for their group, Unity for short. Padma and Daphne, who had the neatest handwritings, were nominated as secretaries. Padma was given some parchment and she wrote down the rules of Unity that everyone agreed on, first and foremost being that there would be no name-calling, especially the use of the word "mudblood". There was no rule against insults, however, since it was inevitable that there would be arguments and insults often were exchanged during such instances.

Daphne was assigned to write down a charter of sorts, listing what Unity would do to promote inter-house unity and such. After that, everyone signed it to show their agreement. Since all of them had been assigned an essay from McGonagall, they began working on it, helping each other at the same time. Prompting from Mari made the other Slytherins (besides Ron) talk to the Muggleborns. By the time Unity went down for dinner, the Slytherins had seen that Muggleborns weren't so bad after all and were starting to change their views that their parents had instilled.

Author's Note: I couldn't really think of a very good name for the group, so in the end I just went with the name of the fifth house I created in my other HP fic, _Katherine Harper and the Philosopher's Stone._


	9. Chapter 9

Professor Dumbledore apparently had told the searchers that there was no need to go to Sunnybrook Orphanage, for there was nothing in the newspaper on Wednesday about Harry Potter being found. James was never brought in for questioning, either. He was very relieved that his secret wasn't found out, though he was wondering if he shouldn't tell Unity sometime in the future and swear them to secrecy. The other first-years in Unity were nice and appeared trust-worthy, and even the Slytherin members were turning out decent now that they'd gotten to know some Muggleborns. Mari's talks to them helped as well, and Malfoy's and Pansy's threats and insults just drove them further away from how they had been raised up and made them more inclined to see things Mari's way.

The other classes turned out to be exactly as Stella and Stuart had described them. James enjoyed them all except History of Magic and Defense Against Dark Arts. Stuart had not been exaggerating when he said that Professor Binns was dead boring. It wasn't figuratively speaking, either, for the teacher was a ghost. He had fallen asleep in front of the staff fire one night in his old age and he, or rather his ghost, had gotten up as usual to teach the next day, leaving his body behind. He droned on and on in a very monotone voice about goblin rebellions and other incidents in history. Other than Hermione, it seemed that nobody could actually pay attention beyond the first few minutes. James gave up even trying after the first class and spent future classes reading the text and taking notes.

Defense Against Dark Arts would have been an interesting class if Professor Quirrell weren't teaching it. His perpetual stutter made his entire speaking take twice as long, and sometimes it was a little difficult to completely understand. Coupled with his fear of almost everything, and the fact that his classroom smelled of garlic because he was afraid a vampire he'd fought once would come after him, it just made things worse. As for his absurd turban, he claimed it was a thank-you gift from an African prince for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but nobody believed him. For one thing, when Terry asked how it had happened, Quirrell turned pink and began discussing the weather. For another, there was always a funny smell around it and a rumor was spread, thanks to the Weasley twins, that it was stuffed with garlic so he could be protected wherever he went.

Charms and Potions soon became James's favorite classes, partly due to the fact that he was good at it. Even having Professor Snape, who favored his house and was not the nicest person in the world to those outside of Slytherin, didn't keep James from liking Potions.

Potions class, for the first-years at any rate, was Gryffindor with Slytherin and Ravenclaw with Hufflepuff. James was pleased, for it meant he would see Kyle. On the first class, James and Anthony, who were becoming very good friends, sat at a table with Kyle and Justin. When Professor Snape came in, he blinked when he saw that Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were sitting together. Even the very few that weren't taking part in inter-house unity were doing so, mainly because that was the only seats available to them and the two houses did get along quite well.

After taking roll call, Snape gave a speech on the subtleties of potions and how he could teach them to stopper death, brew glory, and bottle fame, if he didn't have the usual lot of dunderheads to teach. Then he seemed to take in account the Ravenclaws, for he added in a grudging tone, "Well, I suppose half this class isn't going to be hopeless. They should be clever enough to brew perfect potions."

He then told the class to pair up and make a simple potion to cure boils. James paired with Justin and Kyle with Anthony. They got to work, with Snape grading papers at his desk and every so often looking up to make sure things were going well. Towards the end of class, he got up to inspect the finished potions. Since the partners consisted of one Ravenclaw and one Hufflepuff, the end result was that all the potions were perfect or almost perfect. Snape looked slightly surprised.

"Five points each to Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff," he said grudgingly. He was even more surprised when he saw the potion James and Justin had made. It was not only perfect, but it was something he or Lily would have made. At the thought of Lily, Snape had to work hard to hide his emotions. He turned from the cauldron to look at James and Justin and froze. The color of James's eyes was the same emerald-green as Lily's, but the shape was different, as it looked like the Lydell twins' eyes.

"Er, the potion is very acceptable," Snape managed to say once he had his emotions under control. "I expect that everyone keeps up this level of proficiency in future classes. Class is dismissed."

In the afternoon, James and his closest friends in Unity went to visit Hagrid, having heard all about the friendly gamekeeper and wanted to meet him. Hagrid greeted them and invited them all in for tea, while his boarhound, Fang, yapped excitedly and then began trying to lick Ron and Kyle. Finally Fang settled for laying his head on James's lap.

The tea was good, but the rock cakes that Hagrid set out were really as hard as rocks. To avoid hurting his feelings, the six pretended to enjoy them. They told him all about their first week when he asked and James, Kyle, and Mari exchanged looks when Hagrid mentioned the search for Harry Potter. It turned out he was the one that had taken Harry from the Potters' destroyed home and brought him to his relatives' home on Dumbledore's orders. If Hagrid had any idea that the Dursleys didn't want Harry and would dump him at an orphanage, he would have never brought Harry there. Instead, Hagrid would have asked Dumbledore to let Harry be raised at Hogwarts or something.

James felt sorry for Hagrid when he heard this and wanted to reveal the truth, but it had also become clear during the conversation that the gamekeeper wasn't the best at keeping secrets. Oh, he would do his best, but he could accidentally let something slip, particularly if you got him drunk. And even if he did manage to keep it, you would be able to tell that he was hiding something from you. If someone asked him point blank if he knew anything about where Harry Potter was, no matter what he said, the other person would know the truth, that Hagrid knew something.

Hermione steered the conversation away from Harry Potter and Hagrid congratulated them on the whole inter-house unity plan. During the past three days, members from Unity had dropped by to meet him and had mentioned it, adding that it was the six of them that had started it. Even Slytherins, who normally didn't care much for him, had visited him, and had been very polite.

When tea was over, the six of them returned to the castle, their pockets full of rock cakes that they had been too polite to refuse. Once in the castle, they threw them away and went to the Great Hall for dinner. After that, all of Unity met in the Room of Requirement and discussed how things had been.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note: Happy Birthday, Remus Lupin! (Even if you have to celebrate up in Heaven) This is the main reason why there is an update today, and why what happens in this chapter happens. Thanks goes to my friend Katie, who is the one that helped me figure out how to reveal a certain person in this chapter. Don't expect new chapters every day, since I am busy with real life and will mostly be able to update on weekends. (Though I do promise to have at least one chapter up a week.) All the reviews I've been getting, plus the many people that have put this fic in their favorites or alert lists, are encouraging, and stimulate me to update as much as I can on this fic.

Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson were the only ones that really protested the idea of inter-house unity among the first years. The remaining few that didn't bother to take part didn't care that it was going on, and really had no problems with the idea of being friends with students from other houses, except for Slytherin. Michael Croner and Zacharais Smith really couldn't wrap their brains around the idea of decent Slytherins, and the rest were just too leery to trust Slytherins yet.

In the end, no second-years joined Unity, for while a number had decided to go for inter-house unity, including a few Slytherins that wanted to change their house's reputation, they kept mostly to themselves. Since there were only twenty of them, they met in an empty classroom whenever they could.

The Room of Requirement turned out to be a wonderful room indeed. Unity had taken to doing their work there instead of in the library or their common rooms, and practiced spells they were learning. Since Quirrell wasn't a very good teacher, they decided to study Defense on their own. Mari finally admitted that she had grown up at a Muggle orphanage since the age of six, but at that point, the Slytherins in the group didn't care. They kept quiet about it, however, since some the older Slytherins wouldn't be as open-minded.

James had his first flying lesson and loved it. He proved to be a natural on a broom, despite never having flown one before. (Unless he'd flown on a toy broom back when his parents were alive). By the end of the lesson, he'd also demonstrated excellent Seeker skills, for he'd caught a round crystal that had fallen from Lisa's pocket after a fifty-foot dive, not even scratching himself, and returned it to her. Madam Hooch had scolded him for doing something so dangerous, but then went on to compliment him on his skills. She then told Professor Flitwick, who in turn summoned the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain and informed her that he'd found the perfect Seeker, James Lydell.

Evanna Rawlins was somewhat skeptical but since Stuart was an excellent chaser and Quidditch talent could run in families, she agreed to try James out. He proved to be just as good as Madam Hooch and Professor Flitwick said and was instantly made Ravenclaw's Seeker. Flitwick spoke to Dumbledore regarding the first-year rule, and since it technically applied to not bringing brooms to school and not playing for a house team, James was allowed to remain on the team. The broomstick rule was waived for him so he could have a decent broom, and a week after James's tryout, a Nimbus Two Thousand was delivered to him at breakfast, courtesy of Professor Flitwick.

James liked his head of house even more after getting the superb broom and couldn't wait to try it out at practice that evening. It was even more wonderful to fly on the Nimbus, and after practice he generously let Stuart take a turn in it, though he watched his foster brother anxiously to make sure it wouldn't get damaged.

"Lucky you, getting a Nimbus," said Stuart good-naturedly when he was done. "I'm stuck flying a second-hand Cleansweep Five." The only reason he had been able to buy the Cleansweep last year, besides the fact it was used, was because he and Stella had decided to share their third-year books rather than buy two separate sets and they had earned some money doing odd jobs for Mrs. Draper and a few families that lived in the same neighborhood as the orphanage.

On September 19th was Hermione's twelfth birthday and all of Unity celebrated it. Neville asked Fred and George the way to the kitchens and asked the house-elves working there for a birthday cake and some snacks and drinks for a party. They happily obliged and sent the food up to the Room of Requirement. Hermione was extremely surprised that there was birthday party for her and thanked everyone. Everyone played some games and had the snacks. Finally it was time for the cake.

After the delicious cake was the opening of presents. Everyone in Unity had chipped in two Sickles, which came to three Galleons and seven sickles, and they got Hermione a journal and luxury quill pen, a book on advanced potions, a box of Toothflossing Stringmints, and a charm of the Gryffindor crest which could be worn on a necklace chain or a charm bracelet. They could have each gotten her a present, but it would be rather tiring for Hermione to have to open twenty-nine presents, and she would have no room to keep them all unless they turned out to be sweets. This was she had less gifts to open and worry about where to put them, and nobody would feel uncomfortable about not being able to afford a more expensive gift or feel that they spent too much.

On September 30th was Stella and Stuart's birthday and James got his siblings a book and a pair of Chaser gloves. The day after that, something odd happened.

In the Slytherin common room, everyone was peacefully doing homework or playing games of chess or Gobstones. The peace was disrupted by a loud yowl and some squeaks. Everyone looked up to see what the disturbance was. Fortunate Lily the cat was next to the fireplace, her paws firmly placed on top of a struggling Scabbers. Ron recognized his rat and snapped, "Hey, get away from my pet rat, you stupid cat!"

Mari jumped up, a horrified look on her face. "Lily, what are you doing? I thought I told you that the pets of other students are off limits and not your dinner?"

"Your cat's not actually eating Ron's rat, Mari," pointed out Daphne. "All she's doing is holding him captive."

"I don't care, she should leave other people's pets alone. Fortunate Lily, let go of Scabbers this instant or I'll lock you up in a cage for a week!"

The cat wouldn't listen and hissed when Mari went over to pick her up. Ron came over as well and was also hissed at. "What's the matter with your bloody cat?" he demanded.

"She's either possessed, or maybe she's not a real cat," suggested a seventh-year Slytherin. "She could be an Animagus. You know, a person that can turn into a particular animal. Professor McGonagall's an Animagus and her form is a tabby cat. I know a spell that can show if an animal is actually an Animagus or not and can do it."

"It won't hurt Lily, will it?" Mari asked anxiously.

The seventh-year shook his head. He pulled out his wand and did the spell. Just before it hit, Lily sprung out the way. The spell hit Scabbers instead, and everyone was shocked when the rat suddenly transformed into a plump, balding man that looked somewhat like his Animagus form. He gave a shriek and tried to run out the common room, but a sixth-year girl had the presence of mind to Stun him. She obviously had gotten over her shock very quickly. Once that was done, she left the common room to fetch Professor Snape.

"What's going on?" asked Snape when he arrived. "Why am I being summoned?"

The seventh-year student answered. "Mariko Kishi's cat captured the Weasley boy's rat, but made no attempt to harm it otherwise. She was acting funny and wouldn't let anyone chase her off. I wondered if the cat was possessed or an Animagus, so I did the spell that shows if an animal's an Animagus or not. The cat ran off before it got hit with the spell, so the rat got hit with it. It turned into a man and tried to run away, but Megera Avery Stunned it and then went to get you."

Snape turned to look at the Stunned man and gasped. "That's Peter Pettigrew! But he's supposed to be dead! Sirius Black blasted a street, killing Pettigrew and twelve Muggles, before the Aurors caught up with him. How can a dead man be alive and masquerading as someone's pet rat?"

Ron looked horrified as he stared at Pettigrew and Mari said, "Professor Snape, it's obvious that Pettigrew faked his death. He must have transformed into a rat when Black blasted the street."

"Very smart of you to think of it, Miss Kishi. Five points to Slytherin. But there must be a reason why Pettigrew was hiding. I shall take him to Dumbledore for questioning." With that, Snape pointed his wand at the Stunned body of Pettigrew and said, "_Mobilicorpus!_" The body floated up into the air and Snape led it out the common room.

An hour later, Snape returned to inform them, "Pettigrew was questioned under Veritserum, the most powerful truth potion known. It turns out he was the one that betrayed the Potters' location to the Dark Lord, not Sirius Black, and when Black cornered him, blamed it all on his former friend before blasting the street and escaping as a rat. He's an unregistered Animagus, by the way. Pettigrew has been turned over to Ministry custody, and I expect Black will be pardoned tomorrow and released." He didn't look very happy when he said that.

"But how could a cat figure out that Ron's rat was an Animagus?" asked Blaise.

"Miss Kishi, may I examine your cat?" Before Mari could reply, Lily had jumped up into Snape's arms. He examined her, then said, "Your cat is part-kneazle, Miss Kishi. A kneazle is a magical creature that is like a cat in every way, except more intelligent. Your cat definitely must have sensed that something was wrong about the rat, though not necessarily that it was really an Animagus."

The next day, the front page of the _Daily Prophet_ announced how Peter Pettigrew had been revealed, his confession, and the fact that Sirius Black was actually innocent. Minister Cornelius Fudge was quoted as apologizing for the mistake of his predecessor and that he was going to set things right. A trial would be held that afternoon, in which Sirius Black would definitely be found innocent and Pettigrew as guilty, and Black would be released. He was to be given five hundred thousand Galleons as a way of apology for his wrongful imprisonment without a trial, and he would become a registered Animagus, since Pettigrew had revealed that Black and the late James Potter had been unregistered Animagi also.

Since Mari's cat was the one that caught Pettigrew and Thesus Walden the one that did the spell that turned rat back into human form, both Mari and Thesus found themselves quite popular among the rest of the school. James, though he had to hide it, was very pleased that one of his father's best friends had finally gotten justice, but he was also shocked that another trusted friend could betray his parents to Voldemort. He would never turn on Kyle and Mari, nor the rest of Unity for that matter, even though they weren't quite as close. He made a note to seek out Sirius Black some time after his release and recovery and see if his godfather could be trusted to know the truth and keep it a secret. After all, James hadn;t been aware that he had a godfather until the mention in the newspaper, and he would love to get to know Sirius and hear stories about his parents.


	11. Chapter 11

A week into October, due to all the inter-house unity going on between half the school, the house tables in the Great Hall were replaced by smaller tables. Students from different houses could sit together. The largest one was taken by Unity, who was quite happy to be able to sit together at mealtimes. Dumbledore announced that he was very happy that the four houses were getting along so well and the Founders would approve if they were here. In fact, the portraits of them had already expressed their approval. Dumbledore went on to add that the seating arrangements would stay this way in the foreseeable future, except at the beginning- and end-of-term feasts, which would revert to the house tables.

A week after that, Unity found out precisely why the third-floor corridor was out-of-bounds. The group had been working on Stunners and Disarming one evening in the Room of Requirement and completely forgot about the time. As a result, it was past curfew by the time they realized that they needed to head back to their dorm rooms. They could have asked the Room to provide beds and spent the night there, but none of them were quite comfortable with the idea of both genders sharing a large room together to sleep. So Unity split up and nervously made their way back to their respective common rooms, praying that they wouldn't be caught.

Unfortunately, the Ravenclaws ran into some back luck when they spotted Mrs. Norris. Knowing that Filch would soon appear if his cat was around to spot trouble making, they had quickly fled. However, Filch could be heard searching for them minutes later. Finally they found themselves in front of a locked door. Hoping that it would be a shortcut, or at least provide a hiding place from Filch, Padma whipped out her wand and said, "_Alohomora!_" The door clicked open and they quickly piled in. The Ravenclaws were just in time, for a minute later, Filch was heard walking past, muttering to Mrs. Norris about troublesome students walking around after curfew.

James heaved a sigh of relief, but whirled around when Mandy let out a stifled shriek. "Mandy, what's the -" His voice trailed off as he saw the cause for her shriek, a gigantic three-headed dog that was looming above them. The only reason it hadn't attacked was because their appearance had surprised it, but it looked as if it was recovering. Anthony and Terry were pale, and Su looked as if she was about to faint. "Get out!" hissed Padma to the others furiously. They hastily backed out the room, James dragging Su by the arm since she appeared too frozen with fright to really move. Lisa kept her head long enough to make sure the door was shut and locked behind them.

Terry shook Su on the shoulder and she snapped out of her fright to join the others in their run to the Ravenclaw common room. Thankfully they didn't run into Filch or a teacher. They skidded to a stop in front of the entrance, gasping for breath, and could hardly think when the knocker asked, "What is round and deep as a cup, but all the oceans can't fill it up?"

Finally Morag managed to recover enough to gasp, "A s-sieve!" They were allowed to enter and the eight of them collapsed on sofas and armchairs, trying to recover from their fright.

Morag was the first to speak. "Did you notice that the three-headed dog was standing on a trapdoor? It's obviously guarding something."

The others just stared at her. Ravenclaws were supposed to be more observant, but this was going too far in their opinion.

"How did you notice that?" Anthony demanded acidly. "I think the rest of us were too busy being occupied with the three heads, Morag."

Morag winced. "I happened to glance at the floor when we were backing out," she replied. "And I thought I asked to be called by my middle name of Isabel, since I hate my first name."

"Oh, sorry, Isabel, I forgot," apologized Anthony. "Well, if it's guarding something, what is it?"

The others shrugged, having no idea, and eventually they all went to bed, not having enjoyed the experience they had been through. The next day, they had told the rest of Unity about it. All they could come up with was whatever that was being guarded would have to be really valuable, very dangerous, or both.

Three days later, on Saturday, a very angry Sirius Black showed up at Hogwarts, followed by Remus Lupin, who was trying futilely to calm him. He marched into Dumbledore's office and shouted, "What were you thinking when you left my godson at the Dursleys like that, Dumbledore? They hate magic! And then not being aware that they wouldn't want Harry and would leave him at an orphanage! Now nobody can find out where he is! Granted, he's probably having a better life than he would at his relatives, but no wonder Remus wouldn't tell me anything about Harry until now, when he thought I'd fully recovered from my stint in Azkaban!"

"Sirius, calm down," said Dumbledore calmly. "The search for Harry Potter is still going on and he'll be found eventually."

"How?" demanded Sirius. "All the orphanages in Britain and Ireland have been searched and there is sign of Harry ever being at one of them!"

"Not all the orphanages have been searched," said Dumbledore. "Sunnybrook Orphanage hasn't been searched."

"WHAT!" roared Sirius. "WHY HAVEN'T THEY GONE-"

"Because I told the searchers that there was no need to go there," interrupted Dumbledore. "Four children from that orphanage are attending Hogwarts and would know if anyone matching Harry Potter's description was at the school. Two of them are twins, boy and girl, who are in their fourth year, and the other two are their younger brother and his best friend, who are in first year."

"Hasn't anyone questioned the best friend?" snapped Sirius. "He could be Harry-"

"Considering that she's a girl, it would be highly unlikely for her to be Harry Potter," said Dumbledore. "The best thing you can do now is join the search for your godson, Sirius. And I sincerely apologize for the mistake I've made. I should have made sure that his relatives kept him and would treat him well, or seen to it that he was safe elsewhere."

Remus leaned over to whisper in Sirius's ear, who then nodded and said grudgingly, "I'm sorry for yelling at you. We all make mistakes. Remus and I will immediately join the search for Harry. And you may tell Snivellus, I mean Snape, that I am - I am- "

"Grateful," inserted Remus, understanding that his best friend was having some difficulty over thanking Snape.

"Yes, that word, for turning Wormtail in to you when his house discovered him. I-I am in his-his-his debt," he choked out. With that, he fled the room, face red.

Remus bid Dumbledore a hasty good-by and hurried after his friend. Sirius was asking how to go about on the search when they bumped into three students who were clearly first years and two more that looked to be in fourth or fifth year and were twins. "Oh, sorry," said Sirius distractedly.

"Sirius Black!" exclaimed the first-year girl. "Mr. Black, what are you doing at Hogwarts?"

"I came to see Dumbledore regarding my godson, Harry Potter," answered Sirius. "And please call me Sirius. Mr. Black makes me feel old."

One of the first-year boys, the redheaded one, seemed to make up his mind about something. "Sirius, Mr. Lupin, could we talk privately to you? It has to do with Harry Potter."

James was rather nervous as the group entered an empty classroom and sat down. Stuart shut the door and Stella put a Silencing Charm on the room so nobody could overhear the conversation. "James, are you sure you want to do this?" she asked.

"Yes, Stella, I think they can be trusted to keep my secret," James replied. "Besides, they deserve to know the truth. Sirius, Mr. Lupin, I'm a Metamorphmagus. How I look right now is not my real appearance. This is." He concentrated and his hair turned black, his scar moved back to his forehead, and his features changed back to its usual look. "Please don't tell anyone about this. My foster siblings, Stella and Stuart Lydell, and my best friends Mari Kishi and Kyle Melling, are the only ones that know the truth about me."

"You mean you're really Harry Potter?" gasped Sirius, staring down at James. "But- why do all this?"

"I don't want to be the Boy-Who-Lived, with everyone being nice to me just because I'm famous. I'd rather have people like me for me and not because of a stupid event that I hardly remember and resulted in my parents' deaths. I was found on the doorstep of Sunnybrook Orphanage without a note and so the director, Mrs. Draper, named me James Evan Lydell. Odd, considering that my real middle name is James, and Evan is almost the same as my mother's maiden name. Anyway, Mrs. Draper couldn't come up with a last name right away, and Stuart and Stella, who were five at the time, decided that they wanted me to be their little brother and had my last name be the same as theirs. They realized whom I really was when they went to Hogwarts and told me and Mari. I decided to just remain as James Lydell, their younger brother, and discovered that I was a Metamorphmagus. Kyle, who was at the orphanage, but then got adopted, was told the truth after Mari and I were certain that he was magical too, which was when he got his Hogwarts letter."

"Don't worry, James, we won't tell anyone your secret," said Remus. "And please call me Remus. I'm your honorary godfather after all." Actually, what James Potter had said was that Remus was 'god-wolf', but he could hardly say so without having to reveal that he was a werewolf.

Sirius swept James into a hug. "I'm so glad to finally see you again! Your secret is safe with me. I'll go through the motions of joining the search for Harry Potter."

"Thanks, Sirius. Could you and Remus write to me and tell me stories about my parents? All I know is that my dad was pureblood, great at Quidditch when he was at Hogwarts, and his Animagus form was a stag, and that my mum was Muggleborn, was a smart and talented witch, and was Head Girl with my dad being Head Boy."

"We would be happy to," said Remus, smiling. James grinned and turned his appearance back to looking like the Lydell twins' younger brother.

"When your first-year is over, do you want me to adopt you, Har-I mean James?" asked Sirius anxiously. "Your parents said that I was to look after you if anything happened to them."

"I would like that, Sirius. The orphanage was a decent place, but it's not the same as a proper home with loving parents or guardians. But could you adopt Mari as well? I'm not leaving my best friend behind at Sunnybrook. It was bad enough when Kyle got adopted and had to leave me and Mari behind. And could you also adopt Stella and Stuart? The wizarding world thinks that they're really my brother and sister and it would look odd if they didn't come with me."

"No problem," said Sirius easily, quite relieved that his godson wanted to live with him that he was willing to agree to just about anything.

James and Mari exchanged happy smiles. Then James proceeded to tell Sirius and Remus some things about what his life at Sunnybrook Orphanage had been like, with some help from his friends and foster siblings. The two adults were relieved to hear that he had a happy childhood and other than the fact that he had never gotten anything new except on Christmas and his birthday (since the orphanage had to be careful how they spent the funding they got from the government and donations), never lacked for anything. Then the five went on to talk about how the year at Hogwarts was so far. Remus and Sirius were startled to hear about Unity, inter-house cooperation, and that there were decent Slytherins, though they were mostly limited to the younger students, since the older ones were too firmly ingrained in the views that their parents had taught them to really change now.

Finally the conversation ended as Sirius and Remus had to leave and James and his friends had to join the rest of Unity in looking up a person called Nicolas Flamel. It turned out that the three-headed dog, which was named Fluffy, belonged to Hagrid, and had been lent to Dumbledore to guard something. The five Unity members that had been visiting Hagrid yesterday pressed for more information, to which he crossly snapped was none of their business and was a matter between Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel. Then Hagrid had looked furious with himself for accidentally revealing that name. Unity was now looking for Nicolas Flamel, since Mari was sure she had read the name someplace, but couldn't remember where. The only problem was that they had to use the library, because the Room of Requirement wasn't going to just give them the answer. According to Hermione, information, or rather answers, was one of the five things that fell under Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration regarding what couldn't be conjured.

Over the next week, James got three letters from Sirius, telling all about the Marauders and some of the things they gotten into at Hogwarts, plus a photo of a one-year Harry flying on a toy broomstick (a birthday present from Sirius) while his parents chased after him. Remus sent a letter that was mainly about Lily, since they had been prefects together, and a couple of pictures he'd dug up of the Potters' wedding. James reread the letters several times, and let his best friends and siblings look at the photos.

Halloween arrived and James enjoyed the holiday. In Charms, they finally learned the Levitation Charm. He got the hang of it after a few tries and smiled when Professor Flitwick complimented him and awarded Ravenclaw five points. James was quite pleased that he'd inherited his mother's ability in Charms and Potions, though he did wish he'd gotten his father's ability in Transfiguration, also. At least he'd inherited the Quidditch skills, even if he was a Seeker rather than Chaser like his father was.

The feast was great and the decorations wonderful. However, it was interrupted halfway through, with Quirrell running up to the staff table, his turban askew and a look of terror on his face. "Troll-in the dungeons-thought you ought to know." With that, he collapsed in a dead faint.

There was instant pandemonium, which ended only when Dumbledore let off a loud bang with his wand. He ordered for prefects to escort everyone back to their common rooms. This took awhile, since all the houses were mixed up between the many tables. During the confusion, Daphne remembered that Claire Harper had gone to the bathroom a couple of minutes before Quirrell had made the announcement. Susan sighed. "I'll go fetch her. She's in Hufflepuff, anyway."

"You can't go alone," protested Dean. "Not when there's a troll on the loose. I'll join you."

James and Mari then volunteered as well, and the four were about to set off when Claire turned up, a confused look on her face. "What's going on? Why is everyone leaving?"

"Oh, we were just about to go look for you!" exclaimed Susan. "Apparently there's a troll loose in the dungeons. Professor Quirrell reported it a few minutes after you'd left for the bathroom. The prefects are supposed to escort us all back to our common rooms. Come on, Claire. Let's go join the other Hufflepuffs."

Not long after everyone had returned to their common rooms, the rest of the feast was magically sent up to them. Half an hour later, the respective heads of house appeared and informed everyone that the troll had been taken care of. It had left the dungeons and had gone to a girls' bathroom. The noise of its ramage had alerted some of the teachers, who had then disposed of it.

The next day, Unity discussed how the troll had gotten in. Since Hogwarts had so many protective enchantments, the only logical conclusion was that someone had to have let it in. That led to the theory that perhaps it had been a distraction so someone could try to get past Fluffy, and that it possibly could have been Quirrell who let the troll in, since he was the one that had reported it. However, that was quickly dismissed, since Quirrell was scared of his own shadow and not really the type to do something like that. Since they couldn't come up with any other logical ideas, the matter was dropped.


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to one of my reviewers, **Alorkin**, who writes very helpful and nice reviews of my chapters and was the one to point out that Snape could see things as Sirius being in Snape's debt in regards to being set free and that Harry Potter being James Lydell can be considered as a great prank.

November arrived, and so did the first Quidditch match of the year. The very first one was between Gryffindor and Slytherin. The Gryffindor team was very good, thought its Seeker, a fourth year named Grace Jasper, could use some work. While she was a graceful flyer like her name suggested, and could dodge Bludgers fairly well, she wasn't that great at looking for the Snitch. Terrence Higgs, the Slytherin Seeker, was first to spot the Snitch, and Grace noticed two seconds later and followed him. As Higgs had a head start, he caught the Snitch, ending the game at one hundred seventy points to ninety.

The next match was Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff. With James being such a great Seeker, he naturally caught the Snitch and won the match for Ravenclaw, two hundred thirty points to fifty. Sirius and Remus were there, under the excuse to see Dumbledore regarding the search for Harry Potter, and 'decided' that as long as they were at Hogwarts, they might as well attend the match. Actually, they had planned this all beforehand, for they wanted to see James play.

Ravenclaw was very delighted over their win and James found himself the target of much popularity in his house. As it was for his Quidditch abilities, he didn't mind, for it was much better than being popular over an event he didn't remember, besides a flash of green light and an evil laugh.

The Monday after the match, Draco Malfoy, having discovered that James was best friends with Mari, decided to get back at the girl that had 'stolen' power from him by trying to goad James. "Malfoy, your pathetic attempts to annoy me aren't working," said James. "Just go away and annoy your fellow Slytherins."

This served to enrage Malfoy and he turned on Mari, yelling at her for stealing his position and disgracing Slytherin. Snape had to intervene. After speaking with Malfoy in his office, he called Mari in. "Miss Kishi, what exactly are you doing? Mr. Malfoy is under the impression that you are disgracing Slytherin rather than changing its reputation for the better. He also says that you have gotten most of the Slytherin first-years, other than Mr. Wealsey, whose famiy already has a reputation of being Muggle-lovers, in befriending Muggleborns, and that you and your friends are the ones responsible for the inter-house cooperation."

"Professor Snape, it is true that my friends and I started inter-house unity, though my friend Kyle Melling is the one that came up with the idea," replied Mari. "As for befriending Muggleborns, what is the harm in that? Slytherin has the reputation of hating Muggleborns and Muggles and turning out Dark witches and wizards. If we befriend Muggleborns, it'll show that our reputation is changing for the better. Haven't you ever befriended a Muggleborn?"

That question took Snape aback and he recalled the friendship he had with one Lily Evans, later Potter, until the incident at the end of fifth year when he accidentally called her "Mudblood" in a fit of anger. An odd look came to his face and he said slowly, "You have a point, Miss Kishi."

Mari regarded her head of house for a moment, then said, "You've been friends with a Muggleborn once, haven't you, sir? From the look on your face, that person was probably female, and you might have had feelings for her, though she didn't return them."

Snape gave a start at Mari's perceptiveness. "Yes," he admitted reluctantly. "We lived in the same town and I told her about the wizarding world when I saw that she could do magic, which was a couple of years before our Hogwarts letters. We remained best friends until the end of our fifth year, when in a fit of anger I called her the derogatory term for Muggleborns. She had rescued me from two boys that had been bullying me and I was embarrassed."

Mari raised a brow, but then remembered male pride. James had been very annoyed that time when she had done better than him on a math test, for example, and had said boys were supposed to be smarter than girls until Stella and Mrs. Draper had set him straight. And there was the time she had defended Kyle from teasing and he'd gotten mad and told her that he could stand up for himself. It hadn't helped that the boy doing the teasing had said mockingly, "Oh, are you now so pathetic that you need a girl fighting your battles, Melling?" It was only natural that Snape would have felt angry and embarrassed at being rescued by a girl, even one that was his best friend, and say or do something that he normally wouldn't do.

"But you apologized, didn't you?" asked Mari. "My friends always apologized after they'd done something wrong towards me and we made up."

"I did, but Lily refused to accept the apology and so our friendship ended. It didn't help that I was being influenced by certain of my housemates into being their friends or supporting the Dark Arts at the time. Our relationship was already somewhat strained, and calling her that word was - was-"

"The final straw," said Mari helpfully, as Snape couldn't seem to come up with the expression or idiom. "Who was this Lily, if you don't mind telling me?"

He stared at her, then answered, "Lily Evans, later Potter. Please don't tell anyone else about it, Miss Kishi."

Mari exclaimed, "So you were best friends with James's -" She broke off as she realized that she was about to say 'mother'. "I mean, with James Potter's wife. And Harry Potter's mother. That's interesting. Don't worry, Professor Snape, I promise I won't spread it around."

"All right, Miss Kishi. You may continue what you are doing in changing Slytherin's reputation and your group of first-years, called 'Unity', I believe? Just be a little more circumspect and avoid Mr. Malfoy. You may go now."

Mari, as promised, did not spread what Snape had revealed, though she did tell James, after swearing him to secrecy. He was surprised that Snape had been friends with his mother, though he had thought that the Potions professor probably had known her somewhat, since Sirius had said Snape had gone to school with the Marauders and Lily. James wondered what would happen if Snape found out his secret. On the one hand he could keep it, because of his old friendship with Lily, but on the other, he could decide to tell because of the enmity he had towards James Potter. James Lydell sighed and hoped that he would never have to find out. He wondered if Snape was beginning to suspect, though, since the Potions teacher kept glancing at him during class and had strange looks on his face whenever he checked James's potions.

The third and final match of autumn was between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Unfortunately, the only member of the Slytherin team that participated in inter-house unity was Higgs, so when James caught the Snitch, Slytherin was not happy, to say the very least. Sour over the fact that they'd lost to a first year, especially one who was best friends with the girl responsible for what was going on in Slytherin, made one of the Beaters hit a Bludger at James right after he'd gotten the Snitch. By the time he noticed, it was too late to dodge out of the way and he got hit in the head, knocking him out and making his glasses fly off and break.

When he came to, he found the entire Ravenclaw team, some other Ravenclaws, and all of Unity gathered around him. A short distance away, Madam Hooch was heard telling off the Slytherin Beater. Stuart handed James his glasses, which had been magically repaired. "You'd better go see Madam Pomfrey, James."

"Who's she?" asked James, putting on his glasses and sitting up.

"The Hogwarts Healer," answered Stella, helping him stand up. "I'll take you to the hospital wing."

"I'm not going there!" exclaimed James. "You know I hate doctors and won't see them unless it's absolutely necessary."

"But James, you just got knocked out with a Bludger," protested Kyle. "You need to make sure that you're all right."

"And Madam Pomfrey's a Healer, not a doctor," added Neville.

"She's the wizarding equivalent of one," pointed out James. "So I'm not seeing her unless it's an emergency."

Mari rolled her eyes. "Since you have no problem with nurses or people that have some knowledge of medicine but aren't doctors, how about if I ask Professor Snape to check on you? He knows some stuff about healing due because some of the potions he makes are used for healing."

Stella and Stuart escorted James inside the castle. Mari went to get Snape, who reluctantly agreed to check James and make sure he was all right.

In his office, Snape looked James over and then took out his wand. He started to do a spell, then stopped and asked, "Mr. Lydell, are you a Metamorphmagus?"

"Er, yes, Professor," said James slowly, wondering what it had to with his check-up.

"Well, I can't do spells or anything else to determine how you are unless you are in your natural form. And it seems that this isn't your natural appearance."

James shot a panicked look at Stella, who put her arm around him. "You're saying that you want James to revert to his natural appearance, sir?"

"Yes, Miss Lydell," responded Snape. "Mr. Lydell, please do so."

"I can't!" exclaimed James, grabbing Stuart's hand.

Snape raised a brow. "Whyever not? Mr. Lydell, you can rest assured that I won't tell anyone what you really look like."

"I think Professor Snape can be trusted," said Mari quietly. "So you can show him what you really look like, James."

James swallowed, then said quietly, "Professor Snape, you had better not tell anyone what I really look like." With that, he concentrated and reverted to his real appearance. "See? This is why I've altered my appearance to look like Stuart and Stella's younger brother."

Snape gave a start. "So you're really Harry Potter? But that means you've been under everyone's noses the whole time!"

James nodded. "And I hope it stays that way. I do _not_ want to be treated like a celebrity for an event that ended in my parents' murders and I hardly even remember."

"Hmmm, you're more like Lily than James, even if your new first name is the same as his and you look almost identical to him," mused Snape. "Your father would have reveled in his fame. Well, Mr. Lydell, your secret is definitely safe with me. Who else knows besides your foster siblings and best friends?"

"Just Sirius Black and Remus Lupin," answered James. "They were my father's best friends and my godfathers, even if one is honorary, and I thought they deserved to know the truth and could be trusted. They're keeping my secret and are going through the motions of looking for Harry Potter. I think Sirius sees this as some wonderful and big prank."

Snape gave a snort. "Figures. Even all that time in Azkaban didn't make Black grow up. Why did I ever turn in Pettigrew in to the headmaster?"

"But Sirius did tell Professor Dumbledore to pass on his thanks, didn't he, sir?" At Snape's nod, James continued, "And look at it this way, he's now in your debt. Yes, he does owe part of his freedom to Mari, or rather her cat, and Thesus for doing that spell to reveal Animagi, but he also owes it to you for handing Pettigrew to Dumbledore."

At that, Snape looked as if Christmas had come early. James smiled. "Now you can pay him back for some of the stuff that he and my dad did to you in school. While I don't mind harmless pranks, the Marauders went too far in regards to you, Professor, even if you did fight back. Sirius and Remus wrote to me about some of the stuff the Marauders did."

Snape looked even happier. "Thank you, Mr. Lydell. Now, let me check your condition." He did the spell and said, "You'll have a nasty bump on the back of your head for a few days and will probably get a headache shortly. Here's a potion to help with that, and another that will help you sleep tonight. Don't take too much of the latter potion unless you want to sleep until noon tomorrow. If you suffer from anything else, come to me and I'll give you a potion for it."

"Thanks, Professor," said James. "Could you tell me about my mother? Sirius can only tell me about her when she dated my father and then married him, and Remus has some stories about when they were prefects together, but they can't tell me about the years before that, other than that she was good at Charms and Potions and told my father millions of times that she wouldn't go out with him. You would know more about her, since you seem to have been on friendly terms with her."

Snape looked taken aback and glanced at Mari, who said, "I haven't spread it around, but I did tell James since he has a right to know."

"All right, Mr. Lydell, I will tell you some things about your mother," said Snape. "Report to my office on Monday after dinner. Tell the rest of Unity that you have detention with me, scrubbing cauldrons, if they should ask. That will be all."

James thanked him and then he, Mari, and his adopted siblings left the room. Several minutes later, James did feel a headache coming on, so he took the potion for that and then went to take a nap, deciding not to take part in the party celebrating Ravenclaw's win, though he did drink some juice and had some cake before sleeping.


	13. Chapter 13

I wanted to post a chapter yesterday, as it was St. Patrick's Day, but I didn't have the time. I hope this makes up for it. This chapter is dedicated to reviewer omega13a

December arrived, with a great deal of snow. James spent two 'detentions' with Snape, which involved hearing stories about Lily Potter while helping brew potions. James enjoyed the stories and reflected that he his personality was more like his mother's, other than his penchant for playing pranks. However, he hadn't played any other than one to get back at Stuart since he'd been in Hogwarts, and the ones he had played before were all harmless and never targeted at a single person. Of course, most of his father's attention-seeking had been mainly to try to get Lily to notice him, but it hadn't worked well. It was a good thing that James Potter finally got his act together in seventh year, or Harry Potter might have never been born, or have a different father in any case.

A week into December, two visitors came to the school. After speaking to Professor Dumbledore, they sought out Mari. "Hello, Mariko," said the woman in accented English. "I am Yukimi Hirashi, a cousin on your father's side of the family. You may call me Aunt Yuki."

"And I am Tomikazu Hirashi, her husband," said the man. "You can call me Uncle Tomi."

Mari frowned and was not overjoyed to meet relatives. "Where were you for the past five years? After my parents died, I got put in an orphanage, since I didn't seem to have relatives in Great Britain. While Sunnybrook Orphanage was a nice place and I made two best friends there, it would have been nice to have relatives raising me instead."

"We're sorry, Mariko, but none of your Japanese relatives were notified about your parents' deaths," explained Aunt Yuki gently. "We did not find out until our Christmas presents to your family got returned to us. Then we started looking for you, but the Muggle authorities in Britain would not tell us anything about your whereabouts. The wizarding world had no idea where you had gone, either, so in the end we gave up the search and decided to wait until you were of age to attend Hogwarts, when it would be easier to find you."

"Fine, apology and explanation accepted," said Mari. "But don't think about taking me to Japan. I haven't spoken much Japanese since I was six, so my speaking it is bound to be rusty. Furthermore, I'm a British citizen and I like it here at Hogwarts. I also don't want to leave my friends."

"We have no intention of taking you back to Japan," said Uncle Tomi. "Your cousin, Reiko Kishi, Japan's Minister of Magic, also asked us to be her ambassadors in Britain for the next ten years. So our family is in the process of moving here. Our children will attend Hogwarts, rather than the academy of magic that is outside Tokyo, and we would like you to live with us."

Mari regarded her 'aunt' and 'uncle' for a moment, and then nodded. "All right, I'll move in with you, but on the condition I get to visit my friends and they can visit me, Uncle Tomi."

"Of course, dear," said Aunt Yuki. "We really are dreadfully sorry that we didn't find you earlier and take you in, Mariko."

"It's Mari. Nobody calls me Mariko except when they're annoyed or mad at me, Aunt Yuki. How close of a cousin are you?"

"What is the term in English?" asked Aunt Yuki, a slight frown on her face. "Well, my mother was your _oji-san's_ sister. Your _oji-san_ that was your mother's father."

"That means you were first cousins to my mother," answered Mari. "And that would make you my first cousin-once removed. Your children would be my second cousins. What about the cousin that is the Japanese Minister of Magic?"

"Her _oji-san_ is the brother of your father's _oji-san_," responded Aunt Yuki. "You know, the one that decided to move to Great Britain after the First World War."

Mari did a quick calculation and concluded, "So she would be my second cousin once removed, then. What do I call her?"

"In public, Minister Kishi," replied Uncle Tomi. "In private, Aunt Reiko, though she does not feel old enough to be an aunt. She is twenty-eight, Japan's youngest Minister of Magic ever, and was elected four years ago, at the age of twenty-four."

"How did that happen?" asked Mari, shocked. The youngest Minister of Magic Britain ever had had been thirty-one at the time of his election.

"Well, the previous one died of dragon pox, and Reiko, who was steadily rising in the Ministry, was the only one everyone agreed on. The, I suppose the best translation would be Parliament, thought that due to her young age, they might be able to control her somewhat. Well, she quickly showed them that she wasn't going to be controlled by anyone, and as most of the wizarding population in Japan love her, she was able to remain in office."

Mari found herself liking her cousin, or at least respected her a great deal, despite never having met her. Any female that proved that she was just as capable as a male, or more so, automatically gained Mari's respect, unless she did it in an unethical way. That was why Mari's role models and heroines were women like Joan of Arc, Emmeline Pankhurst and the other suffragists that helped win British women the right to vote, and of late, Artemisia Lufkin, the first female Minister of Magic in Britain.

Aunt Yuki then proceeded to explain that she and her husband were in the process of house-hunting, and would hopefully settle by Christmas. When the holidays were over, her two sons would attend Hogwarts. Her daughter wouldn't, as she was only nine. If they had settled in a house by the time Christmas holidays had started, Mari was invited to join them.

"Thank you, Aunt Yuki, but I already made plans," said Mari politely. "My best friend, James Lydell, and his two siblings, discovered that Sirius Black is a distant cousin of theirs. He invited them and me to spend Christmas with him and his friend Remus Lupin last week and we've accepted." This actually was the truth. Sirius needed a reason to adopt James and his 'siblings' and so planned to claim that they were related to him. However, he had to do some searching, or at least appear to search, first in order for the claim to be believed. Remus had joined in the search and discovered that the Lydells really were related to the Blacks. One Isla Black, a few generations ago, had married a Muggle named Bob Hitchens, thereby causing her to be disowned by the family. They had a son, who in turn had a daughter that married one Caleb Lydell.

That made Stuart and Stella third or fourth cousins once removed to Sirius. As he was the only relative that could adopt them, he had the excuse to adopt them and James. His cousins certainly wouldn't take them in. Narcissa had married Lucius Malfoy and they would certainly never adopt halfbloods, and Bellatrix was in Azkaban with her husband. Andromeda was the only one that could, but she probably wouldn't want the hassle of raising more children, considering that her daughter was grown and in training to be an Auror.

"All right, then," said Aunt Yuki. "We'll go to the orphanage you're living at in a few weeks and make arrangements to adopt you, Mari, so you can move in when the summer holidays start."

Five days before the holidays started, Unity finally found out whom Nicolas Flamel was. In desperation, James had sought out Stella and said, "I heard the name Nicolas Flamel somewhere and wanted to know who he was. Could you help me, since you're so smart and everything?"

"He's an alchemist," she responded. "He's mentioned on the back of Dumbledore's chocolate frog card, you know. 'Dumbledore is famous for discovering the twelve uses of dragon blood and his work on alchemy with his partner Nicolas Flamel.' Something like that. I don't remember it exactly."

With that information, Unity was able to ask the Room of Requirement to provide them with books on alchemy and alchemists. After each taking a book and going through it, they were able to find out what Nicolas Flamel had to do with what was being guarded at Hogwarts, According to the book that Daphne had picked, he was the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone, which could turn any metal into gold and produce an elixir that would make the drinker immortal.

It became apparent that the Philosopher's Stone had been held at Gringotts, but then got moved to Hogwarts for better safekeeping, which made sense considering the break-in on the bank. It was lucky that it had been removed before the break-in, according to the article in the _Daily Prophet. _

"But why would such an object be hidden in a school full of students?" asked Parvati, frowning. "Yes, Hogwarts is the safest place to hide something besides Gringotts, but it can be dangerous. If someone's after it, they'll just target the school and that could bring danger."

"But there are bound to be other protections besides Fluffy," pointed out Susan. "And I'm sure that Dumbledore has everything under control."

"But the troll," protested Su. "The only way it could have gotten in was if someone let it in. And the only logical reason for it to have been let in is to be a distraction."

"Well, I'm sure Dumbledore knows that and is keeping a close on things," said Blaise. "Since he seems to know everything, except where Harry Potter is and a couple of other things."

The matter was dropped, since Blaise had made a good point, and the discussion turned to what to do for Christmas presents. They could hardly have each person get a present for everyone else, because that would mean each member would end up having to get twenty-nine gifts. None of them could afford to do that, unless the gift was something that cost only a few Knuts. Also, the receiver of the presents would have to deal with unwrapping twenty-nine presents and finding a place to store them. In the case of the Slytherins, other than Mari and Ron, they would have parents who would raise eyebrows at all the gifts and wouldn't be happy that half came from Muggleborns and halfbloods.

In the end, each person contributed one Galleon and twelve Sickles. Twenty-nine people would collectively come up with a few gifts to give the thirtieth person, which mean that each person was spending one sickle on each individual member of Unity. That solved the difficulty of Christmas presents. As they had done the same thing regarding birthday presents for Hermione, Anthony, Claire, and Theo, they decided to continue for all future birthdays. Best friends could get individual presents for each other, however, such as the case with Daphne and Tracey, and Kyle, James, and Mari.

The holidays then arrived and almost everyone returned home for the holidays. Ron originally wasn't going home, as his parents were going to visit his brother Charlie in Romania, but then Sirius had invited him over, as he was a friend of James and Mari. Sirius also invited Fred and George when he heard that they were pranksters and knew the layout of Hogwarts better than anyone, except for the Marauders and maybe Filch.

Unity expected to split up, since none of the train compartments could hold thirty people, but to their utter surprise, the very last compartment was large enough to hold the group. They supposed that it must have been magically expanded on purpose for them.

They talked all throughout the ride and played games of Exploding Snap and chess. Hanging around the rest of Unity had made Greg and Vince smarter, though they certainly weren't as smart as a Ravenclaw, much less Hermione or Mari, who were currently the top students in the year. However, they were quite nice, despite being a little slow, and were happy not being Malfoy's lackeys.

Sirius and Remus met James, Stella, Stuart, Mari, Ron, and the Weasley twins at King's Cross and took them to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, which was the Black family home. It had been cleaned from top to bottom during the past month and a half to make it habitable, and many of the Dark objects had been thrown out or delegated to the attic. The only thing that couldn't be thrown out was the portrait of Sirius's mother, since it had a Permanent Sticking Charm on it.

Everyone got settled in and then went downstairs for dinner. Sirius started playing with some of his food to make the kids laugh. Remus shook his head. "When are you going to grow up, Padfoot?"

"When I want to, Moony," responded Sirius with a laugh.

At that, Fred and George set down their forks and stared at Sirius and Remus. "Padfoot? Moony?"

"Oh, that's our nicknames for each other," answered Remus. "We came up with them while we were at Hogwarts, along with our two other friends. We called ourselves the Marauders."

"Did you guys create a map of Hogwarts?" demanded Fred eagerly.

Sirius nodded. "The Marauder's Map. Unfortunately, Filch confiscated it at the end of our seventh year and we never got it back. At least it was wiped blank, and I doubt Filch worked it out."

"We have the Map!" exclaimed George. "We found it in our first year." He and Fred went on to explain how they'd been hauled to Filch's office for setting off Dungbombs and noticed a drawer marked "Dangerous and Illegal". Naturally, Fred set off another Dungbomb for a diversion and the twins took a quick look in the drawer. The Marauder's Map was one of the things they took out. After some trial and error, plus some hints from the Map, they worked out how to use it.

"Well, I can't think of anyone better to have the Map," said Sirius with a grin. "Besides Harry Potter. His father, James, was Prongs. Wormtail is the traitor Pettigrew."

Everyone made faces at the mention of Wormtail and Sirius continued, "Though I would like it if you let James use it whenever he needs it, Fred and George."

George looked at James, then Sirius, and finally back at James. A look of comprehension dawned on his face. "You're Harry Potter! That explains why we saw the name on the Marauder's Map a couple of weeks ago! We were carrying out a prank and we checked the Map to see if anyone was coming. We saw a bunch of names of people in Unity leaving the seventh floor, and the name Harry Potter was among them. At first Fred and I thought the Map was malfunctioning, but then we wondered if maybe Harry Potter was at Hogwarts, just under a different name and appearance."

"You're mistaken," said Stuart flatly. "I think I'd know if my brother was Harry Potter."

"I only want James to have access to the Map because he's related to me and has played pranks before," Sirius explained hastily. Which was technically true, since James's paternal grandmother, Dorea, had been a Black before her marriage to Charlus Potter.

The twins and Ron accepted this, though George still looked slightly suspicious.

After dinner they all decorated the Christmas tree that was in the living room and laughed at Sirius's slightly off-key rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry, Hippogriffs." That was followed by a few games and then everyone went to bed.

The next two days were full of fun and games. Sirius charmed some mistletoe to hang over people's heads until the person under it kissed someone else. That didn't last very long, for he soon realized that Mari and Stella were the only girls around and anyway, Mari was only eleven. Though it was certainly amusing to see James screw up his face and kiss Mari on the cheek when it was his turn. He turned red right after and had to endure teasing from everyone else. Mari managed to escape being teased, for she had kept her composure and hadn't blushed at all.

On Christmas Day, James woke up early and in his excitement roused everyone else. None of the others minded and the group gathered around the tree to open their presents. James got Quidditch gear from Sirius, a photo album full of pictures of his parents and the Marauders from Remus, the book _Quidditch Through the Ages_ from Stella, a small box of joke items from Stuart, a box of Chocolate Frogs from the Weasley twins, and a green jumper and box of fudge from Mrs. Weasley. She made jumpers every Christmas for her family and apparently decided this year to include Ron's friends on her list. James wondered if she had made jumpers for everyone in Unity and wondered how she would have found the time to make thirty jumpers if she had. She probably would have had to enchant the knitting needles to knit on their own in order to make so many.

James opened his final set of presents, which were from Kyle, Mari, and Unity. Kyle's gift was a journal and Mari's present a camera, two rolls of film, a potion to develop the film in so that the photos would move, and an album with the first two pages full of pictures of Unity. The gifts from Unity were a notebook (everyone got one and they were all connected to each other to be used as a method of communication), a box of chocolate, and a book on European Quidditch teams.

When Ron, Fred, and George had left the room, Sirius gave James one final present. "This belonged to your father. He left it with Dumbledore before his death. I got Dumbledore to give it to me."

"How did you arrange for that to happen?" asked James curiously as he unwrapped the gift.

"Well, Dumbledore always intended to give it to you once you were found," replied Remus. "Sirius just asked for it on the pretense that he might need it in the search for Harry Potter, and that he wanted to be the one to give it once he found Harry."

James nodded and took out a cloak made of some sort of shimmery material. "What is this?"

"An Invisibility Cloak," said Sirius, grinning. "The Marauders used it to get food from the kitchens, carry out our pranks, and wander about the school and grounds after curfew."

James tried it on, an awed look on face. Stella shook her head and said, "Try not to cause too much trouble with that cloak, James. And definitely don't let Dumbledore see it. If he find out that you have it, then he'll realize that you have to be Harry Potter."

"I'll be careful, Stella," said James, removing the cloak and folding it up. He went upstairs to put his gifts away. In his room, he got dressed in jeans and his new jumper and then went downstairs with everyone else for breakfast.


	14. Chapter 14

This chapter is dedicated to Makurayami Ookami, who wrote my 100th review.

The holidays ended and everyone had to return to Hogwarts. The first evening back, at dinner, Dumbledore made an announcement. "The Japanese Ministry of Magic has sent ambassadors to the British Ministry for the next several years. As they will be living in Britain for the immediate future, their children will attend Hogwarts. So today, two new students will be joining us. Ichirou Hirashi will be a third year and his brother Ryouta will be a first year. They will be Sorted in a minute and I hope you will all welcome them. Oh, and that is the reason why the house tables have been restored tonight. Tomorrow the smaller tables and mixing of houses will resume."

The Sorting Hat and a stool was brought forward and Ichirou walked rather nervously up to be Sorted. Mari craned her neck to get a good look at her cousin. The hat was on his head for only a second before it shouted out, "HUFFLEPUFF!" The Hufflepuff table burst into applause and a relieved Ichirou took off the hat and found a seat between Kyle and third-year Cedric Diggory, who immediately gave a cheerful greeting.

Ryouta confidently took his brother's place at the stool. After about ten seconds, the hat called out, "GRYFFINDOR!" An extremely happy Ryouta ran towards the Gryffindor table, still wearing the Sorting Hat. Professor McGonagall had to stop him and with an apologetic smile, he removed the hat amid much laughter. After that, he continued to the Gryffindor table, where he plopped in the space Neville and Hermione made for him and said, "_Konnichiwa._ I mean hello. I'm Hira- I mean Ryouta Hirashi, but call me Ry or Ryou for short."

After finishing their dinner, Ichirou and Ry went to the Slytherin table to say hello to their cousin, whom they hadn't seen since Mari's visit to Japan when she was five. Malfoy's mouth dropped open when he saw that the three seemed to know each other. "How do you know the family of the Japanese ambassdors, Kishi?" he demanded.

"Because they're my relatives, on my mother's side of the family," Mari responded coolly. "Ry and Ichirou are my second cousins, and their parents are my first cousins once removed."

"Don't forget that Minister Kishi is Mari's cousin, too," said Ichirou. "So you'd better be on your best behavior if you don't want a situation with Japan, whomever you are."

"I'm Draco Malfoy," said Malfoy. "An old pureblood and respected family."

Ry snorted. "How respected can your family be if there are rumors that your father was a Death Eater?"

"He was betwitched into doing the Dark Lord's bidding!" snapped Malfoy. "Father was found innocent!"

Ichirou shook his head. "That's because your father also gave the Ministry a whole bunch of gold to make sure his claim of being bewitched was believed. Such a thing would have never happened in Japan. While there might be people in the Japanese Ministry that would accept, what's the word - ah yes, bribes, the Ministry as a whole wouldn't tolerate that and the Japanese equavalent of the Wizengamot would have thoroughly in-investa-checked the whole matter to make sure someone was guilty or innocent."

Malfoy looked angry, but kept silent as Ichirou was the son of ambassadors. Ichirou, on the other hand, suddenly looked apologetic. "Oh, I am sorry, Draco. I did not mean to offend you. Please accept my humble apologies." He gave a little bow.

"Apology accepted," Malfoy said grudgingly. Ry and Ichirou nodded and then turned to Mari, who introduced the other Slytherins that were a part of Unity.

Ron asked quietly, so Maldoy wouldn't hear, "Why did you apologize to Malfoy, Ichirou? He's a -"

"Don't worry," interrupted Ichirou in the same quiet tone. "Draco is not someone I like, but as the son of the ambassadors to Britain, I cannot go around offending British people. It would not look well. Ryou, remember to do the same. You don't want to cause a situation between Great Britain and Japan."

"A what?" asked Ry, looking confused. "What is a sit-sit-that word?"

Ichirou repeated the word in English and then gave the Japanese translation. Ry nodded. "Oh. Mari, can you help me with English? I can speak it mostly good, but there are some words I do not know, and my grammer is not always perfect."

"Of course," said Mari. "I think my friends will be happy to help. And it's 'mostly well', or 'fairly well', not 'mostly good', Ry. I'll have to ask the rest of the group, but I think you would be a good new member for Unity. That's the name for the large group of first-years that got together despite house differences and are friends." When Ry looked slightly puzzled, she thought for a moment and then translated the last sentence she had said in Japanese, albeit not perfectly, since she hadn't spoken it much in years. He nodded in comprehension when she was done and then offered to help her with her Japanese, which she accepted.

The next day, Ry was introduced to the rest of Unity and accepted as a new member of the group. After reading the rules and charter, with some translation help from Mari, he agreed to what was written and signed his name. Unity then worked on their Transfiguration homework and helped Ry improve his English. In return, he helped Mari with her Japanese and taught a few words to the rest. Predictably, most of the boys wanted to learn swear words, but Ry didn't know any beyond the few that he had heard in school or from his older brother. The girls weren't very happy that the boys wanted to learn swear words, but looked pleased when it turned out Ry didn't know much. What they didn't know was that he later whispered to the boys that if they wanted to learn more Japanese swear words, to ask Ichirou.

James and Kyle stayed out of it, for they weren't really the type to swear. The one time that James had uttered a swear word, Stella had given him a talking to and after that, he had said them in his head if he really needed to relieve his feelings, since he hated disappointing his foster sister. It hadn't helped that he had used the word because he was angry that Mari had done better than him on a math test, and Stella had to scold him about that as well. James shook his head, wondering what had been the matter with his nine-year old self. How did he get the idea that boys should be smarter than girls back then? That was just idiotic. Well, at least the wizarding world had given women more equal treatment before the Muggle world. After all, the first female Minister of Magic had been elected by the Wizengamot almost two hundred years before women could vote in the Muggle world. Then again, that hadn't meant everyone accepted her. Several members of the Wizengamot had walked out after Artemisia Lufkin had been appointed Minister.

Kyle, on the other hand, had never sworn since the one time his adoptive mother had washed his mouth out with soap and water after he had used a swear word. Since he never wanted to go through that again, he, like James, said the words in his head if it was necessary to relieve his feelings that way.

That evening, James asked the Weasley twins for the Marauder's Map, for he wanted to do some exploring while using the Invisibilty Cloak. George took it out and said, "You know the password to open it, right? 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good'." He tapped the Map with his wand at the same time. "And the password to close it is-"

He trailed off as he looked down at the map and saw a dot labeled "Harry Potter" standing next to a dot labeled "Fred Weasley". "What's the matter, George?" asked Fred. He looked down at the Map and gasped. Then the twins exchanged a look and grabbed James by the arms. "We need to have a word with you."

They went into a nearby broom cupboard and George did a Silencing Charm on it so nobody could overhear them. "You're really Harry Potter, aren't you?" demanded Fred. "The Marauder's Map has never been wrong before, and since it says Harry Potter is next to us, then it has to be you."

James sighed. "Okay, I am Harry Potter, but you can't tell anyone. I'm a Metamorphmagus, by the way, so I was able to change my appearance."

"I take it then that Sirius and Remus know the truth about you and are keeping it a secret?" asked George.

James nodded. "I told them the first time they came to Hogwarts."

"What about Stuart and Stella?" demanded Fred. "They-"

"Obviously have to know the truth," finished George. "Since you're pretending to be their younger brother."

James nodded and explained, "When I appeared at the orphanage, there was no note left with me, so Mrs. Draper, the director, had to make one up. She couldn't come up with a last name, so Stella and Stuart suggested that I be given theirs and could be their brother. They realized who I really was and told me and my friend Mari when they returned for the summer holidays. I decided to remain as James Lydell, since I don't want to be treated like a celebrity. I just want people to like me for me, not because I'm the Boy-Who-Lived. After my other best friend, Kyle, got his Hogwarts letter and turned out to be a wizard too, I let him in on the secret."

Fred started laughing and said, "This is brillant! Everyone in the wizarding world, except for the ones that know your secret, are either looking for you or wondering where you are!"

"But you're in Hogwarts, under the name James Lydell!" continued George, joining in his twin's laughter. "If you can keep it up, it'll be the longest-running prank in history!"

James blinked, then realized that the Weasley twins would definitely keep his secret. They were pranksters, after all, and this could be seen as a prank. "Thanks, guys."

George shrugged. "No problem. Even if we weren't pranksters, we'd still keep your secret." He exchanged a look with Fred, gesturing at the Marauder's Map. Fred nodded and the two handed the Map to James.

"You can have it for keeps," said Fred. "Since you're the son of one of the Marauders and the godson to two more, James."

"Thank you, Fred and George," said James, touched. "But if you need to borrow it, let me know and I'll lend it to you."

The twins nodded and then George removed the Silencing Spell and they left the broom cupboard. After his dormmates were asleep, James took out the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map and silently made his way out the Ravenclaw common room. Donning the cloak and checking the Map to make sure nobody was around, he began exploring the school. After awhile, he noticed that Filch was coming his way, according to the Map. As the corridor was narrow, there was the chance Filch could run into James, since the cloak didn't stop people from being solid. He noticed a nearby door standing ajar and quickly ducked into the room.

After Filch had passed by, James took the opportunity to look around the room. It seemed to be an unused classroom. Then he spotted a tall mirror standing in a corner, looking as it had been simply put there to keep it out of the way. He looked at the Map to make sure that there was nobody around, then cautiously approached the mirror.

It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi._ He frowned, trying to work out what language it was. It wasn't English, and didn't seem to be German, French, or Spanish, since he'd seen samples of the langauge. It definitely wasn't a non-Latin based langauge like Arabic or Japanese. He wondered if it was Latin, but the only Latin he knew was the Hogwarts motto, 'mater' and 'pater', and that many of the spells were Latin-based.

Finally, after much thought, he realized that it was just English written backwards, like mirror writing. He worked out the inscription to be "_I show not your face but your heart's desire_." That meant the mirror would show your heart's desire, or what you most wanted. Curious, he stood in front of it, wondering what his heart's desire was. However, all he saw was his own reflection, which was odd. Did that mean he liked his life the way it was now and therefore had no heart's desire? He would have thought he would have wanted his parents to be alive. Then he realized that if his parents had never died, he would never have had Stuart and Stella to be his foster siblings, and he wouldn't have met Mari and Kyle until going to Hogwarts. And there was no guarantee that they would have been his friends if that had happened.

He then wondered why he didn't want to be not found out, which was the other logical choice. After a moment of thought, he realized that he didn't really worry about that. The nine people that knew his secret were trustworthy and would never tell anyone without his permission. He would never be found out unless he slipped up or decided to reveal himself.

James shook his head and decided to leave. He obviously was perfectly happy with his life, at least for the time being. With that, he silently made his way back to the Ravenclaw common room and went to bed. The only ones he told about the incident were his siblings and Mari and Kyle. Stella wasn't very happy that James had been wandering about the school at night, but after a mild scolding and telling him to be careful, didn't say anything more on the subject.

Over the next week, Ry was told about the Philosopher's Stone being hidden at Hogwarts, after being sworn to secrecy. His grammer and vocabulary improved, though it was obvious from his accent and the occasional mistakes he still made that he wasn't a native English speaker. Malfoy had taken to ignoring Mari, since she was related to the Japanese Minister of Magic and amabassadors. As Ry was now part of Unity, Malfoy also ignored the group, though it was rather obvious he still didn't like the way things were going.

Author's Note: I hope nobody minds Fred and George finding out about James being Harry Potter. George was still suspicious even thought Stuart had said that James wasn't Harry Potter, so he would look at the Marauder's Map to confirm things. Naturally, they would keep the secret, since they are trustworthy, despite being pranksters, and it would appeal to their sense of humor and they would see it was the greatest and possibly longest-running prank ever.


	15. Chapter 15

This chapter is dedicated to reviewer mr teddy lupin.

The Hufflepuff and Gryffindor match occurred a few weeks later. Grace managed to catch the Snitch and thereby won the game for Gryffindor, two hundred twenty points to forty. Right after that, Hermione started obsessing about the final exams. Even the Ravenclaws, who took studying and schoolwork seriously, weren't like this, and the rest of Unity found it annoying, especially when she began nagging them to study as well. Vince and Greg found this so annoying in fact, that they decided to quit the group. They promised not to reveal any of Unity's secrets, particularly to Malfoy, and then gathered their things and left. As the two weren't the best of company, and were still a few Knuts short of a Sickle even though they had gotten smarter, nobody really minded their departure, especially when Michael Croner decided that he wanted to join Unity, bringing the number of members back to its original thirty.

It wasn't until Seamus suggested that they create a new rule against being annoying that Hermione calmed down and stopped nagging the rest of Unity to study for the exams. However, as she spent most of Unity's time in the Room of Requirement revising, the others reluctantly joined her in it. Meanwhile, James started feeling prickles of pain in his scar every so ofte, He went to Stella about it, who had no idea as to why it was happening and advised him to ask Snape or Remus about it.

Snape frowned when he was told. "Your scar is a curse scar, so it wouldn't act like a normal scar, Mr. Lydell. It might have a connection with the Dark Lord. After all, he's only greatly weakened and without a proper body, according to Professor Dumbledore, and I happen to agree with him."

"That's just wonderful," James muttered. "I might have a connection with the stupid evil wizard that murdered my parents through my scar. And if he's still out there, he'll want to return to power and gain a proper body. Then he'll target me again and I'll have to fight him. Though that'll take awhile, since he has no idea that James Lydell is really -" He trailed off as he realized something. "Voldemort's after the Philosopher's Stone! He'll use it to regain his body and return to power!"

Snape winced at the mention of the name and demanded, "Mr. Lydell, how do you know that? Students aren't supposed to have any knowledge of the Philsopher's Stone!"

"Well, too bad, because all of Unity knows about it being hidden at Hogwarts," said James. "The Ravenclaws in the group accidentally found out about Fluffy, and told the rest. We gathered that something was being guarded and then got out from Hagrid that it was matter between Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel. After that, we started searching for Flamel and before Christmas break, found out who he was and that he'd created the Philosopher's Stone. Unity hasn't told anyone outside of our group, so other than the staff and the Flamels, we're probably the ones that know about the Stone being hidden at Hogwarts."

Snape sighed. "Five points from all four houses for meddling in things that don't concern them. And ten points to each house for good detective skills. Now, please tell the rest of Unity not to worry about the Stone. It's well guarded, and Professor Dumbledore is keeping an eye on things. There is a member of staff that is a bit suspicious and the headmaster and myself are keeping an eye on that staff member. If he should turn out to be working for the Dark Lord, Professor Dumbledore will deal with the matter."

"All right, Professor Snape," said James. "Thanks for your help."

Unfortunately, another matter occurred. The Hufflepuffs in Unity had gone to visit Hagrid and discovered that he was hatching a dragon. He apparently had won a dragon egg at a game of cards one night when he was at a pub in Hogsmeade, the nearby wizarding village. That alarmed everyone, since Hagrid's house was made of wood and you simply couldn't tame a dragon. He couldn't hide one in his house forever, and hiding it in the Forbidden Forest once it got big was no solution either. The denizens of the Forest would not take kindly to a dragon living with them, and people would notice when sections of the Forest caught on fire.

James contacted Sirius and Remus, who came to Hogwarts and after a long talk with Hagrid, convinced him that the dragon would be better off at a perserve, specifically the one in Romania that Charlie Weasley worked at. Ron immediately wrote to his brother, who sent a reply in a week saying that he would be willing to take the dragon. After the egg had hatched, Hagrid named the baby dragon Norbert, and tended him for a couple of days, Sirius and Remus came by again and made arrangements to send Norbert to Charlie.

Unity breathed a sigh of relief when the matter had been handled. James was really glad that his godfather and god-wolf had been able to help. (He had asked why three of the Marauders had become Animagi and Remus had to admit the truth. James didn't mind at all that Remus was a werewolf, and like his father, referred to it as a 'furry little problem'.)

Three weeks after that, the first of the exams began. Everyone in Unity felt varying degrees of nervousness, for failing the final exams would result in repeating first year or getting thrown out from Hogwarts all together. James wasn't particularly worried about Potions and Charms, since those were his best subjects. In fact, in the practical part of the Charms exam, he had not only made the pineapple tap dance on the desk, but also on the wall and part of the ceiling. Professor Flitwick had looked very impressed with that. James had no problem with brewing a Forgetfulness potion, though some of the other students were nervous with Snape breathing down their necks while they tried to work.

The Transfiguration exam went well, though James wished he had done a better job in transfiguring a mouse into a snuffbox. While he had succeeded, the snuffbox had the same color as the mouse, a dull brown, and it was still a bit furry. (Though thankfully it didn't have whiskers like Neville' and Justin's snuffboxes.) Herbology went pretty well, thanks to Neville's tutoring in that subject, though everyone in Unity knew that Neville had done the best, as that was the one subject he excelled in and did better than anyone else.

Their very last exam was History of Magic. One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who'd invented self stirring cauldrons and they'd be free, free for a whole wonderful week until their exam results came out. When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchment, James couldn't help cheering with the rest.

"That was far easier than I thought it would be," said Hermione as they joined the crowds flocking out onto the sunny grounds. "I needn't have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager."

Hermione always liked to go through their exam papers afterward, but other than most of the Ravenclaws, nobody else wanted to, so Unity wandered down to the lake and flopped under the trees nearby. James tried to relax, but his scar was hurting again, and he couldn't say so without having to reveal that he was Harry Potter. "What's the matter?" asked Su, noticing his discomfort. "Aren't you happy that the exams are over, James?"

"Yes, but -" began James.

"But what?" asked Seamus, sitting up and looking somewhat concerned.

James looked around at the group, then made a decision. With Crabbe and Goyle gone, there was no worry about them letting anything slip. And Ry and Michael had proven themselves to be trustworthy and could keep a secret. He didn't really like keeping his big secret from the rest of Unity (besides Mari and Kyle) anyway. "I have something really important to tell you guys, but you must swear to keep it secret and never tell anyone else about it," he said solemnly.

They all nodded, except for Mari, who looked alarmed, and Kyle, who shot James a look that clearly said _Are you sure about this_? James nodded and then asked Unity to go to the Room of Requirement. Once inside, James said, "Okay, Mari and Kyle already know about it, since they were my best friends before Hogwarts. I've decided to trust you guys with it. Now, I am a Metamorphmagus, or someone who can change their appearance at will. This isn't my real appearance. _This_ is." With that, he concentrated and resumed his real appearance.

"Wow, you look like Harry Potter!" exclaimed Ron.

"No, you idiot, he _is_ Harry Potter!" snapped Padma. "No offense, Ron. Now we need an explanation. I suppose Stuart and Stella know the truth, James?"

James nodded. "They were the ones that found out and told me. I was left on the steps of Sunnybrook Orphanage without a note, so Mrs. Draper, the director, had to make up a name for me. She had some problems coming up with a last name and Stuart and Stella suggested that I have theirs, so I could be like their younger brother. So that's how I got the name of James Evan Lydell. I don't want to be famous and have people fuss over me because of my fame, not because they know me as a person and like me. So that's why I'm not revealing myself. I suppose I may have to tell the rest of the wizarding world eventually, but it's not going to be for several more years, I hope, and by then, people will have known me as James too long to start giving me special treatment. Well, actually they will, but they'll have known me as an ordinary person, so it won't be that bad."

"Who else knows besides your 'siblings' and best friends?" demanded Ernie.

"Sirius Black and Remus Lupin know, since they were my dad's best friends and my godfathers. And Professor Snape, because I had to show him my real appearance if he was going to be able to heal me after I'd gotten hit by a Bludger in that match Ravenclaw had with Slytherin. Oh, and your twin brothers know, Ron. They found a map that my dad and his friends made of Hogwarts and it shows people's locations." This was for the ones that didn't know about the Marauder's Map. "My real name appeared on that map and Fred and George found out about my real identity and promised to keep it a secret, adding that it could be seen as the longest-running prank in history."

Dean couldn't help chuckling at that. "They're right, it could be seen as a prank. Anyway, I'm definitely not telling anyone your true identity."

Daphne snatched a piece of parchment and wrote, "We, the undersigned people, swear to never reveal James Lydell's real identity to anyone else unless he says so." She then handed it to Hermione and asked, "Could you do some sort of spell to make certain that the signers keep James's secret, Hermione?"

Hermione thought for a moment, then said, "Well, it wouldn't exactly keep people from telling, but it will make the person regret doing so." She put the strongest hex she could do on the parchment and then everyone in Unity signed it to show that they would never reveal that James was really Harry Potter. If someone should break this promise, then the hex placed on the parchment would take affect on him or her.

James then went into some more detail about what was going on, with help from Mari and Kyle. Finally he explained about how his scar was hurting and that Professor Snape had a theory that it might be be connected with Voldemort in some way. Most of Unity winced at the name and Lavender protested, "But You-Know-Who's dead!"

"Just because I defeated him doesn't make him dead," replied James. "Snape says that Dumbledore believes that Moldydork just lost most of his powers and a proper body. Snape believes Dumbledore, and I do too. In fact, that would explain why someone is after the Philosopher's Stone. If you were Moldydork and didn't have a body and much power, wouldn't you want to get your hands on something that would help you gain a body and return to power?"

Normally they would have found 'Moldydork' funny, but the subject was too serious for Unity to laugh at anything. "That's not good," said Anthony, eyes wide.

"That's the understatement of the century," muttered Susan. "My Uncle Edgar and his family were killed back when You-Know-Who was in power."

Neville shuddered and in a small voice revealed how his parents had been tortured into insanity by Death Eaters that had wanted to find out Voldemort's whereabouts after his defeat. Everyone looked sympathetic and James wondered what was worse, having your parents dead, or alive but unable to recognize you. From the look on Mari's face, it was quite obvious what she thought, that having your parents alive but insane was worse.

"Well, what can we do?" asked Theo after several minutes of silence. "We can hardly go out and stop You-Know-Who."

James stood up. "I'm going to talk to Snape and see if he can help." He returned half an hour later, an alarmed look on his face. "Dumbledore's gone! He got a letter from the Ministry and left Hogwarts! And Snape says that I shouldn't worry, since the Stone is well-protected and the one suspect he has doesn't know how to get past Fluffy. Which I doubt, because right after that, I realized that it was suspicious how Hagrid was able to get a dragon's egg. So I went down to see him and it turns out he let slip how to get past Fluffy that night he won Norbert! Well, the stranger _did_ get Hagrid drunk and said he wanted to make sure that Hagrid would be able to tend a dragon."

"Oh no, that means that whoever's after the Stone will likely go after it tonight!" exclaimed Ry.

"You mean 'whomever'," corrected Hermione, which made the rest gave her annoyed looks for caring about grammer right now.

"Well, I'm going to make sure that Moldydork or his servant doesn't succeed," said James flatly. "By the way, Snape told me that the suspect is Quirrell, since he's been acting odd since he came back from his, what's the word, oh right, sabbatical. And Hagrid let slip that playing music will put Fluffy to sleep."

Everyone stared at him, then Mari got up. "Well, you're not doing this alone, James. I'm going with you. No arguments. You'll probably need some help getting past the other protections, even if you are a Ravenclaw, and I'm the top student of the year, along with Hermione."

"And I'm going too," declared Kyle. "You're my best friend along with Mari and I'm not letting you face Moldydork alone."

The rest of Unity then said they wanted to help as well. James looked even more alarmed. "But you'll all get in trouble if you're caught! And what if you got hurt or killed? After all, my parents died because of me! If I had never been born, they would still be-"

"They did not die because of you!" interrupted Morag angrily. "Your parents died because they chose to oppose You-Know-Who! Blame their deaths on Moldydork, not yourself."

"And if you think we'd let a member of Unity face danger alone, you're crazy, James," added Blaise. "Our charter clearly states that we will help each other no matter what. And one of the rules happens to be 'As long as you are a member, there will be no deserting the other members.' We all signed our names and so we're helping you."

"Fine," sighed James, admitting defeat. "But it's going to look ridiculous having all thirty of us trying to make sure the Stone doesn't get taken and used for evil."

The others just shrugged and then began making sure that they had gotten the hang of the Disillusionment Charm so they could get to the third floor corridor that night without being spotted by Filch or a teacher. Neville and Sally-Ann had some difficulty making their entire bodies invisible, or rather blending in with the surroundings, so Hermione would do the spell on them instead. After that, they began looking up spells that might help and James ran up to his dorm room to grab the Marauder's Map and the flute Hagrid had sent him for Christmas.

None of them had much appetite at dinner and only ate because Hermione pointed out that they would need all the strength they could get to get past the defenses on the Stone and face Quirrell or Voldemort. After the meal, they returned to the Room of Requirement and continued practicing spells. After an hour, James stopped and just stared at the Marauder's Map so they would know if Quirrell or anyone else went to the third-floor corridor. It was almost midnight when James noticed a dot in the part of the map representing the third-floor corridor. For some reason, it was labeled with two names. One said 'Quirinius Quirrell', while the other said 'Tom Riddle'. He pointed this out to the others, who had no idea why there were two names either. In any case, there was no time to wonder, for they had to stop Quirrell/Tom Riddle.

With that, they performed the Disillusionment Charm on themselves and hurried away for the third-floor corridor. When they arrived, it was clear from the harp in the corner that Quirrell had already gotten past Fluffy. James started playing his flute, which made the three-headed dog fall asleep. Everyone hesitated about going through the trapdoor, except Mari, who snapped, "Don't be such cowards," and jumped down herself. A moment later, she called up, "It's all right! There's a plant that breaks the fall!"

James handed the flute to Kyle and then jumped down himself. The rest followed, with Kyle being last. Neville was the one that noticed that the plant was dangerous and he and sveral of the others managed to escape its grasp. The rest weren't so lucky. "What is this blasted plant?" demanded Terry in a shaky voice.

"It's a Devil's Snare!" exclaimed Neville. "How do you fight it? Oh yes, it likes the dark and damp, so we need a fire!"

As Hermione was the best one at conjuring fire, Unity turned to her, but she wailed, "But there's no wood!"

"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" bellowed Ron, struggling against the Devil's Snare's bonds. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"

"Oh, right!" exclaimed Hermione, cheeks pink with embarassment. She whipped out her wand, pointed it at the Devil's Snare, and muttered a spell, which made bluebell blue flames appear. The plant shrunk back and the eighteen that had been captured by it were able to free themselves.

Everyone congratulated Neville on knowing how to deal with the Devil's Snare and Hermione on the fire she conjured. After that, they set off to the next chamber, which turned out to house flying keys. It was quite clear that one of the keys would open the door leading to the next chamber. As there were only four brooms, James, Ron, Dean, and Susan, the best flyers, went searching for the correct key. James was the one to spot it and after directing Ron, Susan, and Dean, managed to catch it. He stuffed it into the lock and turned it. The door opened and the key flew back to join the others, looking rather battered now that it had been caught twice.

The third chamber had a giant chess set, which had to be McGonagall's protection, just as the Devil's Snare had been Sprout's and the flying keys had been Flitwick's. It was clear that they had to play and win to get across. As there were only sixteen pieces to a side and thirty of them, not all of them would play. Considering that pieces would inevitably be taken, there would be less than sixteen of them playing as well. Ron, who was the best at chess and had beat everyone else in Unity, took charge. He took the place of a knight, directed James to be king and Mari to be queen, and Kyle as rook. When Lisa and Susan said they wanted to take part also, they took the place of a bishop and the other rook.

Play began, with Ron using his chess skills to the utmost. Finally he saw a way for them to win, but it would involve having to sacrifice himself. Everyone protested, but Ron snapped, "Do you want to stop Moldydork from returning to power or not? It's the only way. I'm doing this. Susan, remember your move that will checkmate white."

Susan nodded. Ron, face pale, but looking determined, made his move. The white queen struck him with her arm, knocking him out. Hermione screamed and would have moved forward, but Michael and Hannah grabbed her. Susan shakily made her move and the white king threw down his crown. Unity had won. Tracey, Claire, Anthony, and Seamus stayed behind to tend to Ron while the rest moved on.

The next room contained a troll, but it was already knocked out cold, so they didn't have to deal with it. Holding their noses at the smell, the group headed for the next room.

James pulled open the next door, none of them hardly daring to look at what came next - but there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.

"Professor Snape's," said Millie with a frown. "What do we have to do?"

They all stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind them in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. They were trapped.

"Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. She read it out loud.

_Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,  
Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,  
One among us seven will let you move ahead,  
Another will transport the drinker back instead,  
Two of our number hold only nettled wine,  
Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.  
Choose, unless you wish to stay here for evermore,  
To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:  
First, however slyly the poison tried to hise  
You will always find some on nettles wine's left side;  
Second, different are those who stand at either end,  
But if you would move onwards, neither is your friend;  
Third, as you see clearly, are all different size,  
Neither dwarf or giant holds death in their insides;  
Fourth, the second left and the second on the right  
Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight._

The Ravenclaws, Hermione, and Mari, the logical thinkers of the group, started figuring out the bottes of potions based on the poem. After about five minutes, they worked out which bottle would allow you to go forward and which would let you go behind. However, there was only enough potion to let only one person go forward. When James told the others to go back, Mari gave him a withering look. "If you seriously think that Kyle and I will let you go on alone, you're crazy, James. The three of us have done important things together ever since we became best friends. The rest of Unity, yes, should go back and contact Dumbledore or another teacher, but Kyle and I will be going with you."

"But there's only enough potion for one of us to go ahead!" protested James.

Kyle shook his head. "Remember that we're magical?" He dumped out one of the bottles that contained nettle wine and poured the tiny amount of the potion that let you go forward in it. He handed the bottle to Mari, who did a spell that increased the contents so that there would be enough potion for the three of them.

The rest of Unity wished them good luck, though they all looked as if they were wishing that they could join the trio and help them. The twenty-two of them drank from the bottle that would let them go back and after a final good-luck wish, stepped through the purple fire. James, Kyle, and Mari drank from the other potion and stepped through the black fire.

In the final room was Quirrell, busily examining a mirror that James recognized to be the Mirror of Erised. The Defense professor turned with surprise when the three entered and demanded, "What are you doing here? I thought students weren't supposed to know about the Stone!"

"Well, too bad, because all of Unity knows about it," said Kyle coolly. "The three of us are here to stop you and the rest of Unity have gone to alert the teachers."

"Do explain who Tom Riddle is," said Mari. "We did a spell that would show anyone who was in the forbidden corridor and the parchment showed two names next to the dot representing you. One was your name, but the other was Tom Riddle."

A strange voice said, "_Reveal me. So I can explain._"

"Are you sure, Master?" asked Quirrell, no longer stuttering. It clearly had been an act. "You are not strong enough."

"_I have the strength for this_," the voice responded. Quirrell sighed and began unwrapping his turban.

"You're possessed!" James cried in horror, realizing the awful truth. "Moldydork must have taken over your body since he doesn't have a proper one of his own!"

"How dare you call me names!" hissed Voldemort from the back of Quirrell's head. The Defense teacher turned around so that the trio could see.

"I'm not calling you names," said James calmly. "It's the truth. You're moldy, and clearly are a dork if a one-year old baby could defeat you. Now, since the spell showed your name to be Tom Riddle, that would mean that 'Voldemort' isn't your name. I suppose when you decided to become a crazy dark lord, you wanted a scary name?"

"How clever of you to figure that out," Voldemort hissed. "Then again, you were Sorted into Ravenclaw." He directed Quirrell to do use his wand to write out the name "Tom Marvolo Riddle." Then the letters were rearranged to spell out "I am Lord Voldemort."

"Oh, how smart!" said Mari sarcastically. "You can do anagrams! I've been doing anagrams since I was eight."

"How did you come up with a name like 'Voldemort'?" asked Kyle. "It's French for 'flight of death'. Not very scary, since anyone who knows French could figure out that you're running away from death. Well. everyone is going to die eventually, and it shows what a pathetic coward you are to be afraid of your own death like that."

"How dare you!" snapped Voldemort, completely distracted from looking for the Philosopher's Stone. "Kill them!"

Quirrell turned, but Mari was quicker. "_Expelliarmus_!" Quirrell's wand flew out his hand and Kyle caught it. He instantly snapped the wand in two so that it couldn't be used anymore. Voldemort let out a shriek of anger and had Quirrell advance, but just then, Dumbledore arrived. With the appearance of the headmaster, the spirit of Voldemort fled, leaving the body he had been possessing to die. Since he had been living on the back of Quirrell's head for almost ten months, not a few days, there was no chance of Quirrell surviving it.

The trio quickly told Dumbledore what had occured. He was surprised that Unity had figured out about the Stone, but hid it quickly, and explained that the Philosopher's Stone had been hidden in the Mirror of Erised and only someone that wanted to find it but not use it could get it out. He then escorted the trio up to the Hospital Wing so Madam Pomfrey could make sure they were all right. Ron had come to, but was going to stay the rest of night in the Hospital Wing to make sure he fully recovered. The trio was allowed to be released as they had suffered no injuries and they filled the rest of Unity in on the confrontation with Quirrell. They were shocked that Voldemort had been on the back of Quirrell's head and that he had been born Tom Riddle. Unity decided to call him by his real name from now on, though they would still mockingly refer to him as Moldydork whenever they wanted.

On Saturday was the final Quidditch match of the year, between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. James caught the Snitch about five minutes into the game, winning the match and Quidditch Cup for Ravenclaw. Everyone was impressed with how he had caught the Snitch so quickly, for it had to be a Hogwarts record, and with the whole inter-house cooperation, Gryffindor wasn't too disappointed at their loss. Besides, Ravenclaw winning had broken Slytherin's streak, as well as narrowly secured their winning of the House Cup. Gryffindor was last place, Slytherin third, and Hufflepuff second.

However, at the leaving feast, Dumbledore stood up and announced that due to recent events, he had some last-minute points to dish out. Neville, Hermione, Dean, Seamus, Sally-Ann, Lavender, Ry, and Parvati each won fifty points for Gryffindor. Anthony, Terry, Michael, Padma, Morag, Su, Lisa, and Mandy won thirty points each and James sixty for Ravenclaw. Ernie, Susan, Justin, Claire, and Hannah won fifty points each and Kyle sixty for Hufflepuff. Finally, Millie, Blaise, Ron, Tracey, Daphne, and Ron got fifty points each and Mari sixty for Slytherin. The end result was that all four houses were tied at eight hundred and twenty-two points, which had never happened since the House Cup had been established.

Dumbledore looked really pleased when he realized this (though James suspected it had been planned all along, for each Ravenclaw in Unity, besides him, had been given less points than the members from the other houses) and said, "Well, it just goes to show how deeply entrenched inter-house cooperation has become. All four houses have succeeded in being tied for the House Cup. If the Founders were here, they would be extremely happy."

Snape didn't seem too pleased at the tie and said, "One point to Slytherin for being a part of inter-house cooperation." This meant that Slytherin would win, except that the three other heads of house immediately awarded their houses a point each as well for the same reason.

Dumbledore chuckled and said, "Let's just let this tie remain, all right?" He clapped his hands and three-quarters of Ravenclaw hangings changed to ones of the other three houses. As no one house won the Cup, the four house tables disappeared as well, to be replaced by the many smaller tables. Unity quickly gathered at their usual table and the other students quickly mingled together as well. Food then appeared and everyone began eating. It was the best evening Unity had that year.

The next day the exam results came out and Unity was quite pleased to see that they had scored the top marks in their year. Hermione and Mari were tied for first place, with Mari's slightly better Charms mark making up for Hermione's slightly better Transfiguration mark. The two, in fact, had gotten the best marks in all the exams, except for Herbology, which Neville beat them in. Harry placed fifth, tied with Anthony. Greg and Vince had the lowest marks, though they had done well enough to pass the year, thanks to the time they had spent in Unity. Mari asked them if they wanted to rejoin the group, but they politely declined, saying that they just wanted to stick to themselves for awhile.

After that, trunks were packed, notes were passed out reminding the students that were underage that their performing magic was not allowed during the holidays, and everyone boarded the Hogwarts Express. Sirius and Remus were there to meet James, Stuart, and Stella. Sirius had gone to Sunnybrook Orphanage and adopted them, essentially telling the truth to Mrs. Draper. He had left out magic and the fact he had been in prison, saying instead that he had been out of the country at the time of death of James's parents and didn't find out until much later. He had been unable to find James when he had returned and so decided to wait until the boy was old enough to attend his parents' alma mater, making the search easier. Mrs. Draper accepted the story, plus the valid paper that said Sirius was godfather, and let him adopt his godson. She was suprised that he was also adopting the Lydell twins until he explained that James had asked him to, since he didn't want to leave his foster siblings.

Mari's Aunt Yuki and Uncle Tomi were there to collect her and her two cousins, and they had brought their daughter Sakura, who was ten years old. Sakura was very happy to meet her cousin and chattered excitedly in a mix of Japanese and English. The Unity members said good-bye to each other, promising to keep in touch via their notebooks, and those that could would visit. After that, they left with their respective parents and guardians. James followed his adoptive siblings, Sirius, and Remus out of King's Cross Station, wondering what his summer was going to be like and who in Unity he would visit besides Mari and Kyle.

Author's Note: I hope readers enjoy this chapter, which is my longest one yet. I wanted to get the first year over with as soon as possible so I can move on to second year. I didn't have James defeat Quirrell/Voldemort like he did in the books because that would make Dumbledore suspicious. Mari and Kyle had to be there because they've been with James ever since they became friends and there was another prophecy made that nobody knows about that says the one who will defeat the Dark Lord will be aided by his two best friends in all confrontations with the Dark Lord until the final one. And please forgive me for having Crabbe and Goyle leave Unity. They're really not all that smart and I didn't like the idea of their being a part of Unity since it was hard to write about them in that capacity. I only wanted to leave Malfoy without any supporters among the first year Slytherins, desides Pansy, so that's why Crabbe and Goyle joined Unity in the first place. Now they've left, but don't worry, they won't go back to Malfoy, and will just stick to themselves. Well, I hope you all enjoyed this and I plan to have the first chapter of James's second year up soon.


End file.
